


Code Wings 3.0

by HunterMoebius, TeenLyokoFan7777



Series: Return to the Past, NOW [3]
Category: Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride - James Patterson
Genre: Action/Adventure, Bathing/Washing, Co-Written, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Fear, Fear of Flying, Friendship, Gen, Guilt Complex Issues, I'm Bad At Tagging, Journey Home, Kidnapping, Massage, Other, POV First Person Modified, Rescue from The School, Road Trip gone crazy, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Unethical Experimentation, Waking Non-Sequitur, Wings, Yumi and Ulrich are a couple here, dna modification, talking dogs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2018-09-27 06:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 236,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9979733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HunterMoebius/pseuds/HunterMoebius, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeenLyokoFan7777/pseuds/TeenLyokoFan7777
Summary: The vortex. Thanks to its mystery, the whole world knew about their secret. But what if it didn't stop there...? What if it alerted others from other universes to their existence? One mystery could give them the ride of their lives... literally.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Code Wings Revamp](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/268856) by Teen-Lyokofan7777. 



> Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. Set in Cassidy's POV

XANA had finally been weakened.

I know; at first, I couldn’t believe it myself, especially when Jeremie told us that he could do it. Of course, I was originally afraid that my former first roommate, Aelita, was going to lose her father, in an attempt to give it energy, and I had even told Einstein this. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. And I am so glad it didn’t.

It was such a relief that I fainted in the lab, freaking Elisabeth ‘Sissi’ “Sister” Delmas (depending on who addressed her) out when she found me lying there, after staggering over from the freight elevator.

I awoke to an immense victory in Lyoko HQ. Rosa even made us a cake—my favorite. Aelita’s mother and father stood proud, chuckling as I ended up with frosting on my nose, again.

That cake tasted incredible, though; even the bit on my nose, once I discovered it. Luckily, Ulrich didn’t wipe it off this time. He instead chortled, clutching his sides. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him laugh that hard, but since my coma, I have seen my friends act out of character.

But something nagged at me. I couldn’t put my fingers on it. It was as if there was soon to be another threat, but I couldn’t tell my friends where, when, or why. All I hoped was that XANA hadn’t come back that quickly.

My boyfriend Odd was the first one to notice something was up, during a calm point in our celebration. “You okay, Cat Girl?”

I jolted from my thoughts. “Yeah, Odd, I just have a feeling something will happen. I can’t tell you because I don’t know what it is.”

“What if it’s nothing?” he attempted to reassure me, softly rubbing my back in the process. “If you don’t know, then maybe you’re worrying too much?”

I shrugged. “Maybe you’re right, Odd.”

Meanwhile, across from the two of us, Aelita was retelling a joke she remembered Odd having told her once before. While the punchline didn’t get me, Jeremie seemed to catch a severe case of the giggles after he heard it.

“I see Einstein’s enjoying himself.”

“That’s an understatement, Cat Girl,” Odd interjected.

Yumi, Ulrich, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William… even Aelita herself was laughing at it, but nowhere near as hard as Jeremie was.

Soon, all the celebration had ended, and everyone in our group started getting tipsy with exhaustion. I could see them all falling over, possibly jumping into the first bed they could find, even if it wasn’t their own, and passing out at some point; Kiwi already had, but luckily he had made it to his new bed, first.

I curled up in the corner bed, yawning. “Good night, everyone…”

Yumi, while touching the bottom of somebody’s foot, muttered something unintelligible, but it vaguely resembled an “ _Oyasumi._ ”

The closest to me, Sister, mumbled, “Good nachos…” I couldn’t blame her. She was so tired, it was making it so hard for her to think straight. And she hadn’t even had nachos today, at all.

Strangely, even the most likely person to have any kind of reaction to that, _mi novio_ Odd, didn’t do anything. It was like he had earplugs in, or something.

In fact, I didn’t even feel like saying anything. The whole party had tired me out, too. All I wanted to do was just fall asleep for six years.

Before my vision blurred to nothingness, I saw Ulrich’s hands clap, and the lights went out. I didn’t even know anyone had installed the _Clapper_ in our room. I just hoped it wasn’t Jim, considering that he ended up almost electrocuted at points.

But little did Odd and I know that we were going to be proven so dead wrong. Not only were my feelings spot-on, but what was going to befall us was something I had actually heard about before, but strangely forgot soon after, as though someone had buried it like a treasured jewel. And that thing would be one of the scariest things I had ever experienced, and one of the craziest threats any of us had ever seen.

 


	2. The Invasion of Lyoko HQ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois.

You remember that vortex? That gigantic, scary thing my friends said I had summoned before I fell into my coma? You remember how everyone in the whole entire world saw it, ranging from those rapscallions that took Aelita’s mom to even Samantha Knight? Now, do you remember when Kaitlyn told me that if anyone evil had seen the vortex, they would have done something about it?

I really wish she had been _wrong_ and kept her mouth shut like Ponyboy Curtis did during an encounter with the Soc gang!

Why? Because someone evil _had_ seen the vortex, just as I feared! And if we thought XANA was bad… well, XANA never did _anything_ quite like what these guys did to us…

I awoke from the bed I claimed the night before sleep overpowered me. The first thing that surprised me was how low to the floor it was. It was as if it was only a mattress, and someone had stolen the bed frame in the middle of the night. Of course, those thoughts changed, once I looked over and saw Yumi’s purple plush cat thing. Man, I must have been really tired last night, if I couldn’t even find my own bed…

So, if I fell asleep in Yumi’s bed—which was actually more comfortable than I thought it would be—then… whose bed did she fall asleep in?

Patrick’s.

I slowly sat up, feeling slightly disoriented from the change in beds, and glanced over at an interesting setup: Yumi had fallen asleep in a strange position, where her hands were near the top of the bed, behind her head, as if she fell onto the bed in that position, last night. Of course, what was even worse was the person who slept in the bed next to hers; Kaitlyn’s, to be exact.

Jeremie happened to at least have enough tact to take his shoes off, before plopping down on his cousin’s bed. He always was able to resist forces trying to overtake his body, until he was able to complete a task; I guessed sleep was just another one of those forces. Of course, he also didn’t happen to be wearing any socks, either. Good thing his feet smelled better than _mi novio_ ’s used to.

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, Yumi’s sleeping position. She had her hand right under Jeremie’s bare foot… and she happened to wake up, first.

Guess what happened next.

Jeremie woke up laughing. And that was followed by anger; he thought Aelita was sleeping in the bed next to “his,” as she was the first one to pull that stunt on him. So imagine his surprise when he sat up, eyebrows fallen, preparing to yell at his girlfriend… when he found Ulrich’s, instead.

“Yumi?! What the heck happened here?!” Einstein exclaimed.

That got through to Sister, who ended up taking Jeremie’s bed. She was next to sit up before Yumi could even say anything. “Jeremie, honey… It’s Saturday…”

He adopted an embarrassed look. “Sorry, Sissi, go back to sleep.”

“Too late, Einstein. Once Sister’s awake at this time, she isn’t the type to go back to sleep.” I smiled.

Getting onto my hands and knees, I took another look around the room, to see where everyone else ended up. What I saw next made me cackle uncontrollably and land back on Yumi’s bed: Odd ended up atop Ulrich, as though they were trying to outdo each other in an impromptu wrestling match during the night and my wildcard ended up having him pinned, having taken Aelita’s bed. If I had my camera from my earlier exploits, and this room sooner than now, I’d have this as an interesting pic for the school paper. I guessed in a way, Odd had Ulrich beat for once.

Next, I found William sleeping in my bed, but I didn’t mind that. Hopefully, he found it quite comfortable. I liked my soft mattress, after all.

Patrick found himself in Sister’s bed, which I found interesting, considering what had happened before the return trip. At least his head wasn’t against her “I Love You” pillow; that would’ve made me wish I had my camera even more.

Kaitlyn’s bed of choice was Ulrich’s, an interesting one; only because I wondered what she’d do when she opened her eyes and saw a pair of _shuriken_ and a _nunchaku_ , along with the katana that Jim gifted him in the hospital, on the wall above her. But I shrugged it off, thinking that since she had a hardcore personality, she wouldn’t mind it.

So, where did my former first roommate end up? On Odd’s bed, of all places. I don’t even know how soft, or how firm my boyfriend’s bed is, but I only hope it wasn’t too firm. I mean, I know that when someone’s exhausted, they’ll sleep on nearly anything, even the side of the road, but still.

The others soon opened their eyes, discovering someone had played a terrible game of “musical beds” during the night, as they sat up, still feeling disoriented, although that wouldn’t last very long. Ulrich especially pushed Odd off of him, looking as though he would unleash his Pencak Silat training upon _mi pobre novio_.

And my poor wildcard of a boyfriend was rolled over onto the floor, jolting from his sleep as soon as his face plant into the carpet woke him up. Because of that, he ended up finding out that nobody had slept in their designated beds while wondering how he ended up on the floor if everyone else got a bed.

“I vote our parties be short enough for us to sleep in our own beds.” Jeremie raised a finger, attempting to hide his chuckles at seeing Odd on the floor.

“Jeremie, do we have to? Yumi's bed is comfy,” I whined playfully.

Yumi couldn’t help but giggle, as well. “Thanks. I like it, too.”

“It’s true. I bet it could hold more than one person if need be,” I smiled.

Before Yumi could think of anything, I happened to overhear Ulrich confronting his former roommate about the weird position he found the wildcard in.

“Odd,” he looked over the side of the bed, looking down at _mi novio_ , “why did you fall asleep on _top_ of me?!”

“I was tired!” Odd interjected. “Did you expect me to be able to make it all the way to my own bed when this one was much closer?”

“Oh, Odd, you know I oughtta…” Ulrich grumbled.

“HEY!” Patrick and I yelled, trying to calm the two down. “Easy… We’re all in this same room _juntos_.”

Odd turned to look at me. “Yeah, you’re right, Cat Girl.”

Ulrich gave a nod, but he still looked a bit upset. “Yeah… alright.”

“Besides, it’s a brand-new day,” Sister smiled.

“Time to start it,” Kaitlyn yawned. “Ready for a shower?”

“First, my sister should get hers!” the principal’s daughter looked at me, giving me a nod. Wait… did she just tell everyone _I_ should go first? She was always the first one to shower, and somehow hogged the girls’ bathroom. I still couldn’t get completely used to how the vortex changed Sister, but I was getting there.

“O-okay…” I smiled uneasily. “Thanks, Sister…”

I knew there wasn’t any time to question it, so instead, I gathered my supplies and headed to the showers. There were a few other girls there, but no crazy line leading from the door, thankfully. When I got inside, I heard a familiar voice call out to me, as I started to get ready.

“Hello, Cassidy! Did you sleep well after the party?” Emily smiled.

I nodded. “Most definitely. XANA’s weakened, but not gone, yet. We almost didn’t have enough energy, but we took some resources from Sector Five, instead of a human sacrifice.”

Emily’s smile got bigger. Somehow I could tell she still didn’t understand some of what I said, yet, but she was happy, anyway. “That’s great!”

“Yep. Jeremie still has calculations to run, but he’s thinking about taking a break today.”

While I was talking with Emily, I happened to hear another girl come walking in. I glanced over to see Tamiya, in her light blue bathrobe, smiling as she came over to me.

“How are the interviews doing?” I asked, as though in greeting.

“We have several notebooks’ worth. It’s going to be a little while until the _Herrald_ is published,” she announced. “We have to get the photos developed to give them to you. Jim only allows us in there for an hour a day, so we have to choose which groups of them will become available. We’re nearly halfway through.”

“Wow… I hope you got Odd’s good side, otherwise y’all won’t hear the end of it until the non-talkin’ cows come to call,” I said, gradually slipping into my almost correct Southern accent.

I got both of them giggling after that one, causing a smile to grace my features.

“You still got it, Cassidy,” the first of my then-few friends grinned at me. Other than the other Lyoko Warriors, I knew her and Milly since the time that practically the whole school thought I was weird, and ostracized me for no reason.

“I guess I do. I’m just glad to get a start on the day.”

After I showered and got dressed, I walked out of the bathroom, feeling quite content. Of course, that didn’t last long, because as I made my way over to the double doors, I stopped as I saw something really strange through the windows. It looked as though one of Odd’s horror movie dreams was bleeding out into reality; wolfish men seemed to pass by the door, as though they were awaiting their prey. But there wasn’t a full moon outside, and it was morning. If _Van Helsing_ was anything to go by, new werewolves change back at dawn unless cured before the last strokes of midnight. By all standards, these wolves should have turned back by now, but then I looked at the back of one of their necks. Strangely, one of them looked as though they had a weird series of numbers, separated by dashes, tattooed on the back of their neck, like a barcode. My eyes widened. _That’s not a serial number. That’s…an expiration date. These aren’t werewolves… They’re—Erasers… That means… Oh, God!_

Forcing myself to take a couple deep breaths, I hummed a random, tuneless ditty about the rain and walked back to Lyoko HQ. Opening the door, I walked inside and shut it behind me.

“What’s wrong, Cat Girl? You look as though someone poured cold water on you in your warm shower as a prank,” Odd inquired.

“Hey, Kaitlyn, remember when you told me if anyone evil were to see the monster I unleashed, they would have done something about it?” I asked, ignoring _mi novio_.

“What about it?” she asked.

“Well…” I tittered nervously. “We…happen to be—” _Stay calm… Don’t scare everyone in the room…_ “...SURROUNDED!” _Nice going, genius…_

Everyone leaped off from the beds they had been laying on, as though they had piping hot mattress pads under them. The looks on their faces ranged from fearful to tense, with some surprise thrown in.

“What?!” Yumi asked incredulously.

“Don’t go through the double doors. Don’t pass go and collect 189 Euro Bills,” I ordered. “Take your showers, and then come back here! We’re surrounded by Erasers!”

”What if there’s no time for that?” Jeremie interjected. “They could hear us coming into the bathroom, and get us in there!”

While Jeremie was starting to freak out, Ulrich was confused. “But who _are_ these Erasers, anyhow?”

I stepped in. “They are wolfish men that were always after Maximum Ride and her flock since the day Jeb, a human scientist/whitecoat, took them away from a genetics lab called The School. He disappeared one day without a trace, leading Max to take his place when she, her boyfriend/lover Fang, and fellow member Iggy were near twelve years old.”

“Why does this sound similar to how Franz disappeared, huh?” Sister asked.

“I guess it’s a bit of a stretch since things ended up complicated. But… these Erasers, thought to be thrown to extinction, were brought back somehow,” I assumed. “It’s very strange in some respects, I understand. The wolfish men ended up kidnapping their youngest member, Angel.”

“And the flock got her back, remember?” Yumi asked, remembering when I lent her my copy of the book the day before we rebuilt Lyoko a Sector at a time.

I nodded. “We need to get away from here. But how? We obviously can’t go through the doors. That’s too easy. We’d end up cap—”

I was suddenly cut off by a blood-curdling scream, coming from another room farther down the hallway. After the room went quiet again, it only took me a few moments to realize who screamed: _Samantha Knight!_

To think she’d only started coming to school here a month ago, and already, crazy things are happening to her again...

“—tured…” I finished quietly.

I saw Ulrich grit his teeth nearby, as a look of anger slowly overtook his face.

“Well, what are we sittin’ around here, for?” he declared. “Can’t we fight them off?”

“No! Ulrich, we are all human—except for Kiwi—and even then, they would probably snap us like twigs!” I reasoned, heart quickening in panic. “I know you fought for my honor at one point, but listen to me. Erasers are not to be messed with by humans. Now if one of us had wings…”

“But we don’t!” Jeremie rebutted. “None of us have wings, air sacs, or anything like that. And we probably can’t get to the factory, so that also rules out the possibility of teleporting you all here, which would’ve at least allowed you and Aelita to fight them, if the rest of us couldn’t.”

“Then we won’t stand a chance, Einstein.” Fear overtook my face as I said that.

No sooner had I finished my sentence, then the ten of us heard a twinkly voice filter through the door, revving my nerves up to eleven. “Hey, kids… Why don’t you go outside for some fresh air…?”

“Don’t listen to them. Their voices sound convincing, but it’s all lies. They could tell someone to jump off a cliff, and they’d do it,” I warned.

Everyone nodded in understanding. Hopefully, that was all it would take, and they wouldn’t try a worse tactic on any of us.

“We are doomed! I can’t believe that we’re the ones trapped,” Sister’s voice quivered as she spoke, and I could feel she wanted to cry.

I waved my arms in front of me, holding in my own inner fear. “Don’t panic. We just need to breathe.”

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before we got some breathing time. More footsteps came, and a gruff voice, belonging to only one guy we all knew, broke the silence.

“Hey!” It was Jim, presumably glaring at the wolfish men. “What are you all doing here?!”

“Itex business, sir! We have clearance from our boss in Death Valley, California.”

My heart plummeted, slightly, when I heard that. I knew that place; Death Valley, California is where The School is!

“Did you get permission from Mr. Delmas, before you surrounded the dorm building?!” we heard him interject. “You have no business around here!”

This didn’t make my nerves any better. Did he just say they _surrounded the dorms?!_

I walked over to the big window next to Sissi’s bed, looking below. Indeed, black sedans, white-coated men, and more Erasers had stood around the perimeter. Some students, thankfully, passed by without any harm to them. I even recognized the dark-brown dots that I talked to earlier—Emily and Tamiya.

As I moved away from the window, heart hammering in panic, I could hear _mi novio_ taking a deep breath, before looking over at me.

“So what should we do, now, Cat Girl?” His voice didn’t sound very panicky, thankfully.

 “I d-don’t know… I never dreamed this would happen…” My inner torrents of terror rose slightly.

I soon felt a pair of arms embrace me, causing me to relax. It was Aelita, giving me a warm, comforting hug to try and calm me down. And it was working.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy.” I was sure she could remember the time the Men in Black came after her and her father, after they went so far as to kidnap her mother years prior, and how they got away. “Maybe there’s a way we can still escape from here, without the Erasers getting us.”

I nodded, taking a deep breath. “Jeremie… Um…You wouldn’t uh…happen to have a s-schematic of the school’s updated v-ventilation systems, do you?”

“I don’t,” Jeremie started with the words I didn’t want to hear him say, at least at first, “but don’t worry, Cassidy. I can download them in a snap.”

He immediately got up and ran to his computer. “I’ll have them in no time flat.”

Outside, while we waited for Jeremie to download the plans, we heard a sound we were hoping we wouldn’t have to hear; a loud thud, as if someone had fallen to the ground. All of us secretly hoped it was the Eraser, but with a noise that loud, almost two-hundred-fifty pounds, it could only have been Jim.

Sister was the first to react, as she started to scream.

Ulrich pulled the heels of his hands to his ears, squeezing his eyes shut and gritting his teeth. To say Sister’s scream was bugging him would be the understatement of the year.

My own hearing organs ringing, I spoke a bit loudly, “Okay… Jeremie, how’s that plan coming?!”

Jeremie was grimacing, too, but at least he seemed like he was getting some work done, even if he was surprised by my yelling, at first.

“Cassidy, not you, too!” he called out, his eyes widening, before they returned to normal size, a few seconds later. “I-I mean… I’ve almost got it. This website is going incredibly slowly, and it’s taking—”

“Well work faster!” Odd ordered. “We don’t want to end up as Eraser-style Pedigree here!”

Jeremie whirled around to face Odd. “It’s like I told Cassidy; the website it’s on is loading really slowly, and no matter how fast I am, it’s still gonna take it a few seconds to catch up! I can try to—”

A ping from his computer pulled him back over to it and stopped Sister from screaming. “Yes! I can finally download it, now!”

“Thank goodness!” My heart, on the verge of panic, slowed down to a relaxed state. “Hurry and print it out! We need to escape!”

While I was commanding Jeremie, I happened to look over at Kaitlyn, and my face fell. From the grimace on her face, the way she was looking down at the carpet, and the way her hands were overlapping each other at chest level, I could tell she felt horrible about something. And she did; she had told me that thing about bad guys not doing anything after seeing the vortex to help me relax. Now that she had been proven wrong, it broke her heart into a million pieces.

“Kaitlyn, you were doing all you could to help me relax,” I told her.

“I know, but…” Even her voice sounded as though it was filled with emotional pain. “...why couldn’t I have been wrong?! How was I to know those Erasers from that book series you and Yumi read were gonna come after us?!”

“Maybe it was a one-in-a-million chance,” I gulped. “I don’t know. This is horrible. I should have realized this was going to happen, too.”

I felt a soft hand gently rub my back, moments before Sister crawled over between Kaitlyn and me. She looked like she felt a bit better. “I don’t think anybody knew this would happen. Don’t blame yourself over it, dear sister.”

“Okay, but I don’t want us to go down like Jim did.” I trembled despite the backrub.

More soft footsteps followed, and Yumi soon knelt between Sister and me, putting her own hands upon each of our backs, and giving each of them an even softer rub.

“We’re not going to go down,” she tried to reassure us. “Once Jeremie gets those plans, we’ll find a way to get out, before those Erasers find us. We are, after all, Lyoko Warriors, right?”

“Right!” Odd smiled slightly.

Finally, we heard the sound of Jeremie’s printer humming away, printing out the ventilation plans we had been waiting for. The moment they came out of the printer, Einstein quickly grabbed them and set them on the desk next to him. I saw him uncap a marker, as the nine of us surrounded his desk.

“Okay, this is where we are!” He gently pressed it upon the area. “And our outside is over there. We need to move slowly and quietly without disturbing the Erasers, which I’m gonna call E. Anyone get stuck, don’t panic.”

He turned to me, concern lacing his features. “Are you sure you want to go into the vents?”

“I may have claustrophobia, but it shouldn’t bug me if I’m in this much peril.” I nodded.

William walked up next to me, folding his arms. “I don’t know…”

“We’re in a predicament, Ex-y. And friends don’t let friends become Eraser or even possessed lawnmower bait!” I looked him in the eyes. “Besides, the vents helped Ulrich and Yumi before.”

“Yeah… you’re right.” Defeated, my ex slowly backed off. “But I still worry about you, Cass.”

“And I thank you, really, William, now let’s go.”

Dropping to our hands and knees, the ten of us quietly crawled across the carpet, over to Sister’s table, where the vent was. Leading the way, Jeremie quietly unscrewed the grating, while holding the map. Once it was free, he gently set it down next to the hole it covered, before each of us slowly and quietly crawled into the hole, one-at-a-time.

I was the fourth one to crawl through the ventilation shaft. And I was right; the further I crawled through, the less I thought about the tight space I was in. Three more crawled in behind me, and that was when the moment got crazier.

With seven of us in the vents, Patrick and Kaitlyn started to creep in, one after the other, leaving only Yumi behind. As she waited for Patrick to crawl far enough in, so she could squeeze in after him, she heard a bang, which accompanied the door to Lyoko HQ shaking, slightly. Gritting her teeth, she continued to wait patiently, until Patrick had gone far enough through the ventilation shaft, before she started in after him, as well.

Another bang followed her entry. Then another, and another. My gut swirled from the adrenaline coursing through my system.

Trying to take a quiet and deep breath, I held my mouth tightly closed as Yumi closed the shaft with us inside.

Looking back, Odd blinked at me in concern. _Are you okay, Cat Girl?_

A smile lifting my tense lips, I nodded. Thank goodness I could read minds. Why did I even doubt that that would be bad? Making a series of motions without banging my hands on the sides, I signed, +Yes, Odd. I’m doing fine. No claustrophobia so far. Just more worried about the Erasers than I am about my phobias at the moment.+

Reassured, he grinned and turned his head to follow Jeremie and Aelita. _Glad to hear that, Cassidy._

Up ahead, I saw Jeremie start to turn a corner, with everyone ahead of me slowly and quietly following behind him. Once I got up there, I made the turn as well, wondering how much farther we had to crawl.

No sooner did Yumi make the turn, then the ten of us heard a somewhat faint crash. I slightly tensed up, realizing that the Erasers had to have just broken our door down.

My hand went to my chest, checking the beats of my heart. It was pumping quite quickly, unsurprisingly. Swallowing my inner turmoil, I forced myself to follow the rest of the pack. This was the worst kind of time to panic. Nevertheless, before I unleashed that vortex, I would freak out massively when my XANAfied ex entered the scene if he wasn’t in his Rorkal. I wasn’t the best when it came to keeping myself from getting increasingly scared and anxious.

 _Everything okay up there, Cassidy?_ From behind me, Sister’s concerned thoughts rang throughout my head.

I nodded, showing a thumbs-up. Not wanting to turn and sign to her—she still had a long way to go with both Spanish and sign language, but I kept being patient with her—I followed _mi novio_.

It wasn’t long before Jeremie stopped in front of a grate above the dormitory hallway. Clenching my teeth, I tapped Odd’s shoulder, who whirled around. _Anything wrong?_

+What is going on? Jeremie, we shouldn’t be stopping like this! Pass it on.+

Dutifully, my boyfriend signed it forward. Einstein made some motions and passed it back. _He’s surveying the scene, Cat Girl. We should get moving in a few seconds._

My head bobbed up and down for a tiny bit. +Roger.+

A couple times along the way, the air conditioning blasted at us, as though trying to make us turn back. However, with our blond genius as our guide, we pressed on, until we hit a deep drop. Gulping another one of my fears down, I let myself fall into _mi novio’s_ arms. Helping Sister next, we helped assist Ulrich through his vertigo without talking.

It wasn’t long until a different smell hit our noses, it smelled of...the outside. My mouth turned up in excitement, it hit me that we were about to experience our freedom. We only had to crawl for a short while longer, before we could hopefully try to escape through the grating that led out of the dorm building.

 _You’re handling this extremely well, Cat Girl. You took every drop without tensing up,_ Odd’s thoughts rippled with pride. _We’re almost there._

I tapped his shoulder and made some motions, +Well, we can’t have me having a panic attack without alerting the enemy. That wouldn’t end well.+

_You’re doing so good. You even handled that pill bug we saw without squealing._

+I don’t mind pill bugs at all. It’s anything from the bee family on Earth—wasps, hornets, and more—and some breeds of spiders I don’t like.+

_That’s good. Soon we’ll plot what to do next. Possibly in the forest._

+They might have that area covered, Odd… We can’t be too careful.+

With a grin, _mi novio_ soon turned back around, continuing to follow Jeremie and Aelita.

And not long after he did, Jeremie suddenly raised his hand, signaling for everyone to stop. I immediately got curious, hoping nothing crazy had happened, until I leaned my head to the right, just a bit, trying not to bang it against the wall next to me.

Jeremie had found the grate that led to the outside of the dorm building!

I felt my heart leap in my chest, as I hoped it meant we were finally home free.

Then he made some motions, passing it to Aelita, then to Odd. _He’s saying the grate hasn’t been screwed in for a couple weeks, and it should be easy to turn. Pass it on._

I did as I was telepathically told, signing the message to Sister, who, after a couple tries, gave it all the way down the line, ending with Patrick signing to Yumi.

I held my breath, keeping myself quiet. +Message delivered to everyone.+

_That’s great._

At the front of the line, Jeremie quickly peeked through the grating to make sure there weren’t any Erasers or whitecoats nearby, before slowly sliding his fingers through its holes, and pushing outward, harder and harder until the grate finally broke free. My teeth gritted as I watched Einstein slowly lower the grill to the grass below, placing it softly on the ground, before slowly working his fingers out of the holes.

 _Way to go, Jeremie!_ For a moment, my thoughts seemed to echo through my head, until I realized that, in front of me, Aelita had been thinking the same thing I was.

Once Jeremie was out, he turned around and let her out, gently. Odd softly climbed out behind her, and then he helped me climb out. It wasn’t long before everyone else had climbed out after me, in sequence.

Kiwi raced toward a tree, marking his territory. _This should learn ’em! No one messes with Kiwi’s territory!_

“Okay, Cassidy, what now?” Ulrich whispered.

“We need to find a spot we don’t frequent regularly. The factory, Hermitage, Presto-Burger, and even the forest must be teeming with Erasers and whitecoats by now.” I looked at him. “Those are our hotspots, and that would make them come after us.”

“How about the airfield?” Jeremie asked helpfully.

“I love the genre, but heck no to the techno, Jeremie. I would rather face eternal virtualization than go there again.” The thought of it made me grimace. He knew that place gave me the willies!

“How about the studio where we were chosen as the DJ’s?” Aelita suggested. “It’s a place we don’t frequent as often—or even at all.”

I gave her recommendation some thought. “That is good. We met Mattie and Elise, as well as Nico, Ben, Sophie, and Simon, there. Aelita, you are a genius. Let’s go.”

Sadly, that was where everything went wrong.

Just as we started to break into a run, the whitecoats spotted us. The ten of us quickly broke into a run, thinking we could outrun them, but even with Ulrich, Yumi, and even _mi novio_ being as fast as they are, the Erasers that the whitecoats sent after us were quicker than all of us. Before I knew it, I felt a knee to my back, slamming me to the ground.

Jeremie, who had managed some slick evasive strategies, gasped. All it could make him think of was the time he and the others fought to keep the doctors from turning off my life support, the day I finally woke up from my coma.

“Ow! Hey! Any other ideas, Cassidy?!” Ulrich asked as his Eraser forcibly restrained his arms behind his back.

“We’re not strong enough to fight them. And I don’t have my visions back yet, but if you have any suggestions, then please, tell us. We would love to hear them,” I quipped, knowing that wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear.

“You what?!” Yep, I was right. “And how should I know?!”

“You had master strategies, Samurai… You planned out everything just as things were grim, or things were just getting started.”

“But if we can’t fight back, how do we get ourselves out of this?!”

My eyes welled up with the pent-up tears from the whole experience up to that point. “I—I don’t—I don’t know…” I looked at the ground, panic overwhelming me.

That’s when Odd looked over at me, concern all over his face. “Don’t cry, Cat Girl… we’ll find a way out… there’s gotta be a way out.”

I tried to look over at him, to give him a nod. This may have been one of the worst days of our lives, but I couldn’t let myself get scared. What would all of my friends say, if I showed them how much this was freaking me out? I know they wanted me to be more open, up-front, and honest with my feelings, but even Ulrich knows that old habits die hard. Besides, I was sure he was doing the exact same thing.

Of course, his girlfriend happened to turn and look at me, just as I thought that. And my shield might as well have been a window because she didn’t buy it at all.

“It’s okay, Cassidy,” I heard her tell me, calmly. Sometimes I forgot how disarming her voice can be, almost like Aelita’s. “I know you’re afraid, and it’s okay. We’re all here for you, and we’re all gonna go through it with you, too.”

That did it. Her words were like the wrecking ball that destroyed my already-flimsy defenses, as tears dropped from my eyes like rain. I knew that if she could move her arms, she would have hugged me comfortingly. But I knew she was there, anyway, and that was all that mattered to me, at that moment.

The next thing I remember was a bit confusing, as my eyes were quite blurry from the tears. Before I could say or do anything else, I saw a pair of shoes step into my field of vision, stopping in front of me. The person then lowered themselves down, moments before I felt something in my neck. Turning my head to the left as quickly as I could, I noticed a whitecoat was also doing the same to Yumi, with similar things happening to the others. I closed my eyes upon hearing an unadulterated scream of terror, expecting it to come from Sister. Only it hadn’t, this time; Kaitlyn was the one screaming.

Unfortunately, before I could even attempt to rise, a firm hand grabbed my head, holding me in place while I felt something fiery enter my bloodstream. I knew they had given me something, and realizing what it was scared me even further. But before I could form another coherent thought, I slowly felt my consciousness slip away.

And that’s the last thing I remember.


	3. The Ride to the Loading Docks and Meeting Hunter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois, but Hunter Moebius owns his own OC, as do I with Cassidy.

The next part was just a black hole. One minute I was at Kadic, getting tackled by the Erasers with my friends, the next… well… I don’t know where I was. But I do remember that the crawl back to consciousness was a slow one. My eyes slowly opened, as if the whitecoats attached heavy weights to them, when they sedated me and my friends; almost as though I was telling my body to wake up, and it was yelling back, “Five more minutes, Cassidy!”

But where was I? Well, I wasn’t even sure, at first. I felt whatever I was laying on moving underneath me, and I could hear these strange noises. It almost sounded like a car’s engine, and tires against blacktop. If my brain had been more awake, I probably would’ve instantly realized I had been placed in the back of a sedan, after that whitecoat did whatever he did to me.

“Uh…” I moaned, trying to get a better look around. “Y-Yumi…? Odd…?”

Then I saw a weird-looking shadow move just a tiny bit, in front of me. “Ca-Cat Girl?”

I shook my head rapidly. “Odd!”

“Cassidy, are you okay?! I couldn’t see what happened to you, novia…” His hand rubbed his neck. “Ouch!”

“That was a weird sedative, Ninja-Cat-Boy…” I felt like rubbing the back of my neck, to see what was left there. And in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have done that, either. “Ow… I guess this was the dirty tactic Sister talked about when she told me about your battle of my life and death, huh?”

He nodded. “Only theirs didn’t knock them out; instead, it was kinda like laughing gas.”

I tensed, shivering. “Don’t remind me.”

I felt his soft hand gently rub my back. At a time like this, it felt wonderful.

“Don’t worry, Cat Girl,” he cooed. “That was a long time ago.”

Just then, another shadow shifted in front of us, followed by a whimper. My eyes widened. “Aelita?!” _They harmed the sweetest of the sweet?! I know that I’m just a human, but… UGH!_

“I-I don’t know…” She sounded like she was half-asleep, after waking up from a nightmare. “What—what happened to us?”

“Thankfully nothing yet, but I think we’re moving,” I tried to reassure her.

Two more collective groans were heard, after that. Listening hard, my brain started to work just enough to let me figure out that it was Jeremie and Ulrich, who happened to land next to each other.

“Okay… who’s the dork that thought my neck would be a good pincushion?” Samurai mumbled drowsily.

“No... I didn’t stick the keys in the toilet... that was George...” Jeremie muttered next. _Man, what was in the sedative they gave him?_

Even Aelita was worried, as she looked over at him. “Jeremie?!”

Odd blinked, as though he was trying so hard not to laugh. “It’s like what he said, except the roles have been reversed. He’s...merely...stunned…”

But he couldn’t hold back for long, and he soon lost it, bursting into laughter over Jeremie’s random quip.

I swallowed my cackles as much as I could. “Yeah, Jeremie, let’s try to roll with your uncle George…” I knew he didn’t have an uncle by that name, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

“Huh?!” Finally, Einstein bolted awake. “What ‘Uncle George?!’”

“Oh, uh… did I say ‘Uncle George?’ I meant… ‘Valley Forge!’ We were playing a game of 90 Second Alphabet and we got to the V’s,” I lied.

Jeremie just shrugged his shoulders. He was really confused, but at the same time, he didn’t think his brain was running on all four cylinders, so he didn’t stop to question it.

“I guess we really blew it this time,” Odd lamented, as his voice fell.

“No, it was my fault. I should have curbed my impulses and waited until the Erasers and whitecoats were gone,” I frowned. I guessed that “Aelita, you’re a genius” was what alerted them to us trying to escape. I shouldn’t have been so loud.

“You were just excited,” Einstein tried to reassure me, as he put his hand on my shoulder. “That’s all. We almost got away from them.”

A high-pitched yawn hit the airwaves. Sounded like Sister was waking up, and I hoped she wouldn’t be too freaked out, once she found out where she was.

“Sissi!” Jeremie was glad to see she had awakened, as well.

“J-Jeremie, dear… You really need to see the Princess of Pancakes…” Okay, Sister wasn’t completely awake, yet...

“Sissi, what are you talking about?!” While Odd and I were seconds from laughing our heads off, again, Jeremie wasn’t amused by that at all.

“The Princess of Pancakes, Jeremie, honey… Twilight Sparkle…”

That one got me good. I couldn’t help but cackle at that one.

As I calmed down, I heard another familiar moan, this one a bit deeper. Looking over, I saw Yumi start to fidget.

“Yumi…” Ulrich slowly crawled over to his _novia_ , a concerned look on his face.

“Yumi!” I panicked, jumping up and rushing to her.

Ulrich gently helped her sit up, as her eyes slowly began to open. “Yumi… are you okay?”

“Bit shaken, not stirred,” she whispered, a mite quicker to wake up as she looked into his own. “Where’s Cassidy?”

“Over here!” I shouted, wrapping her up into a hug, trembling.

Her arms slowly wrapped around me, in return. “You okay, Cassidy?”

“I’m—” At first, my shield immediately went up. However, considering that she was about to look through it, I forced it to fall. “I’m scared.”

Those two words caused Odd, Aelita and Sister to crawl toward me, and join Yumi’s warm hug. Even the geisha herself tightened her grip a bit, so her hug felt warmer. “I understand… where are we, anyway?”

“In a sedan…” I whimpered. “I didn’t want anything like this to happen… I b-betrayed y-you all ag-again...”

I felt Aelita tighten her grip around me, sounding more awake this time. “You didn’t know they were going to find out about us; none of us did.”

“She’s right, Cat Girl,” Odd chimed in.

“Please don’t blame yourself, dear sister,” Sister jumped in, next. “It’s not your fault.”

“I think you all are right.” Their words all worked together to calm me down a bit.

Yumi nodded, her chin nuzzling my hair. “If anything happens to you, we’ll be ready.”

And that’s when two more moans, one sounding feminine, the other masculine, reached everyone’s ears. It sounded an awful lot like Kaitlyn and Patrick.

“Cassidy?” Kaitlyn murmured. “Where’s the puppy…?”

Almost as if on cue, Kiwi gave a small yip, like he was trying to answer her question. _Mi novio_ ’s diggity dog was still full of life; I guessed the whitecoats couldn’t sedate him? _Kaitlyn! These whatever they ares didn’t get me. They just put me in here._

“Apparently Kiwi is still up and about,” I answered. “How about that?”

Odd broke from the hug, delighted his dog was safe and sound. “That’s fantastic! Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay, my little diggity-dog!”

Yumi softly rubbed my back. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay. We won’t let them get you, promise.”

“Oh, but what if they probe my mind and—Oh…” I was getting more and more frantic. “Why did I unleash that monster…?!”

“Cassidy, that wasn’t your fault!” Yumi cuddled me, trying to get me to relax as she kept softly rubbing my back. “If we could have stopped it, we would have. But that’s in the past, now. We just have to deal with the present, and stop everything bad that happens, because of it!”

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to focus on Yumi’s gentle embrace, and back rubs. “I just hope we can get away from here.”

“We will.” Jeremie was slightly determined. “Once we stop, we’ll figure out where we are, and then find out how we can make a break for it. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“I just hope they don’t circumvent any undue attempt… They like brute force…”

Ulrich rubbed his knuckles against the palm of his other hand. “Well, we’ll just have to hit them back harder!”

“Ulrich, I told you… We’re human. The only ones that are a match to them are Max and her flock, or their own kind. We’d probably be in traction for a while if we try.”

“Max and her flock?” He raised an eyebrow.

“They have wings, and they call their group The Flock,” Yumi explained.

“So, the wings make you stronger?” Now he was scratching his head.

“Kinda, Samurai. Plus they have had training from Jeb before he disappeared.” I raised my finger, still shaking.

I could tell that only confused him more. “Okay, okay, stop. Let’s take this from the beginning, okay? Who’s Jeb?”

“Jeb Batchelder is Max and Ari’s biological but human father. Ari’s an Eraser, but he is a good guy.”

“Wait… so he’s… one of… those guys?” He pointed to the Eraser that happened to be riding shotgun, up in the front of the sedan.

I nodded sheepishly. “But as I said, he had turned away from being evil. The sad part is that um…” Gulping, I trembled even more.

“He had fallen in battle in Germany,” Yumi tactfully finished my sentence.

That made Samurai’s eyes widen. “Oh…”

“Yes, any questions so far?”

“Uhh…” He was at a loss for words.

But that was okay, because in the next moment, another moan graced our ears. Looking over at the source of the noise, my ex-boyfriend, William, finally rejoined the world of the living.

“Did anybody order a tube sock?” he asked numbly.

I clenched my jaw, remembering the time that guy from Explo-Bat kicked me silly. _Did they put other drugs in those sedatives? I didn’t say anything as stupid as that._

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” This was a new voice, but it was one I recognized, even if I was surprised to hear her voice. So, they had taken Sam, after all! And she really wasn’t too happy about it, which I couldn’t blame her for.

But in the state I was in, I really didn’t want to see Sam get any madder than she was. I didn’t know how scary she could be when she was angry, and I really didn’t want to find out. She was scaring me badly enough as it was.

That was when Yumi started to softly rub my back again, this time with both hands. It definitely helped.

“Sam, he’s just in a state. He’ll be lucid in no time,” Odd reassured.

“We just have to wait for the sedatives to wear off,” Aelita added. “There’s really no need to get angry over it.”

Sam took a deep breath. “Okay, but I really don’t like it here.”

“Join the club; we’ve got jackets,” Ulrich deadpanned.

“Ooh!” Odd felt like playing along. “Do they come in purple?”

“Yes, Odd… United States Georgia purple,” he folded his arms, unamused.

While Ulrich and Odd continued to talk, I happened to notice something out of the corner of my eye. It looked like an extra shoe, colored black, with a green stripe running along the side. But it didn’t look like anyone’s shoe I recognized. My eyes followed the legs that the shoes were attached to, noticing khaki cargo pants, like Ulrich’s used to be, along with a dark green hoodie, all of which was worn by someone I didn’t know at all. He had black hair, green eyes, and a black shirt under his dark green hoodie, which was unzipped completely, that had a green, almost glowing, power light logo on it. At least, that’s what it looked like. I could barely tell, because he was hugging his legs against his chest, looking a bit freaked out, just like the rest of us.

“Hi, there?” I managed to say, trying not to spook him further.

His head jolted up a bit, almost as if I surprised him, anyway. He looked straight at me, his fear-filled eyes blinking every few seconds. “Huh? Uh—w-wha?”

“Hi, there?” I repeated, feeling scared that I made him panic.

“Oh! Uh…” His calm voice was laced with fear and surprise, as he tried to compose himself. “H-hiya…”

“My name’s Cassidy…um… Cassidy McGuire…” I attempted to take this a step at a time. “And wh-what’s yours?”

He blinked, again. I could tell he was trying to calm himself, but having a hard time. “H-Hunter… uh… I’m Hunter… Moebius.”

“That’s a very nice name,” Aelita came in.

He started to grin, but his breathing was still a bit shaky. “T-thanks…” He let out a slight nervous chuckle after that.

“You look a bit freaked out. Would you like to join us? We’re trying to keep Cassidy from panicking, too,” Yumi offered.

He quivered, a bit. “Y-y-you’re… n-not with… t-them, are… y-y-you?” He pointed a shaky finger toward the front of the sedan.

I shook my head. “We’re the same as you. We were kidnapped.”

My geisha friend nodded in agreement.

He lowered his hand to his side, slowly. “T-t-that’s a… relief…” He took a few deep, yet shaky, breaths, before slowly crawling toward Yumi and I. As I watched him, I could tell he was a bit reluctant, but he had hope in his eyes.

Initiating the first move, Yumi gently took his hand and pulled him into the embrace. “My name’s Yumi Ishiyama, by the way.”

Hunter started to look a bit surprised when Yumi grabbed his hand, but when she pulled him into our warm hug, he looked like he started to relax, as his arms slowly, but shakily, wrapped around Yumi and the others.

“N-n-nice… to meet… you…”

“I’m Odd! Odd Della Robbia!” _Mi novio_ was next, holding out his hand in the directions of the others, in sequence. “And this is Ulrich Stern, Jeremie Belpois, Patrick Belpois, Kaitlyn Belpois, William Bel— I mean, Dunbar, Aelita Schaeffer, Sissi Delmas—Cassidy calls her ‘Sister’—and last but not least, Sam Knight!”

Hunter briefly pulled his head away from Yumi, trying his best to put on a genuine smile, even though he was still somewhat afraid. “N-nice to meet… all of you.”

Nearby, Ulrich nodded, with a calm look on his face. Even though he didn’t look it, I was hoping he wasn’t going to get jealous, or possessive, because his girlfriend was comforting some boy we just met.

“Samurai…” I whined. “He’s only freaked out. Please don’t start a jealousy streak that I helped prevent in some ways?”

Ulrich sighed. “Okay, fine…”

“And you’re her boyfriend, Ulrich. There’s no way that Yumi would hurt you by comforting someone that needs it.”

Hunter pulled his head away from Yumi once more, giving Ulrich a surprised face. “Oh… s-sorry… did you… wanna h-hug her?”

Ulrich blinked, getting surprised as well. “Huh—uh—ah—duh—uh… wha… wha?”

“I… I-I’m… not making you… think I’m… taking your… g-g-girlfriend… am I?” Hunter was starting to get worried. And I was, too, as I started to shake, almost as if I could feel Hunter’s fear in my own body.

Yumi’s eyes widened a bit as she felt me start to shake, while noticing the look of fear on Hunter’s face. To try and fix this, she pulled him and I in closer, before leaning closer to her _novio._

“Come here, Ulrich,” she whispered, grinning as Ulrich’s cheeks slowly started turning red.

Ulrich started to stutter a bit more, before crawling over toward his geisha girlfriend. As he got closer, she closed her eyes, before he came right up close to her, and the two shared a kiss, which made Ulrich’s eyes open wide.

“There…” she whispered as she broke it. “Now, don’t worry. Hunter’s not stealing me away. He’s just really shaken up.”

All Ulrich seemed to want to do was rehearse his vowels for a few moments, before finally forming a coherent sentence. “Y-yeah, you’re right.”

I could tell that helped Hunter relax, as his breathing slowly started to return to normal, in Yumi’s warm embrace. And when Hunter calmed down, I did, too, relieved that neither he, nor Ulrich, were upset.

After a few moments, Hunter slowly pulled his head away from Yumi, once more. “D-does… anybody know where… we’re g-going?”

“I think I have an idea, but I don’t want to throw you overboard with panic again, Hunter,” I blinked.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. “W-well… i-i-it’s not like we can… get away… c-can we?”

I was starting to think he shouldn’t have said that, as that reminded us of the grim reality we were all faced with. Nearly everyone, including me, gritted our teeth; I started shaking again, as well.

But Yumi was trying to keep everyone calm.

“Nobody panic,” she tried to reassure us, “we’ll find a way out. They can’t keep us here, forever.”

“R-right…” I gulped. “Why does this feel like it’s all my fault?”

“Because you’re worrying too much, Cat Girl!” Odd tried to prove me wrong. “It’s not your fault, at all.”

“But I—”

“No buts,” Ulrich cut me off. “It’s not your fault, end of story. What happened to us, probably would have happened anyway, even without the monster.”

Hunter turned to look at me, a bit surprised by what I had said. “I-I don’t know… how this could be… y-your fault… either…”

I looked into his electric green eyes. “I—”

He wasn’t finished. “H-how could you h-have… known t-t-they were… coming?”

My own widened. Come to think about it, I never had any knowledge that they were coming. The monster I unleashed didn’t magically give any clues. But what about that weird tower I had to deactivate? Then again, it only took me prisoner before I went into a black hole that brought me safely into a scanner. There was nothing that gave me this exact moment. Yolanda was right about my mind throwing me into anxiety. It was bad for my health. “I guess I couldn’t…”

“I-I’ll bet it was… t-t-the same with you,” he added, “...as it was with... m-me… T-they just… j-just… s-s-snuck up on you… and you… c-c-couldn’t… get… away…”

“Plus I was impulsive about getting to a safe place with my friends. XANA was right! I put my friends’ lives at risk…” I bemoaned.

“C’mon, Cassidy,” Ulrich calmly reminded me. “XANA just said that to make you angry. You know he probably hates you the most, out of all of us, so of course he’s gonna say things like that.”

“He was going to probe my powers to make the human race bow to him, Ulrich, prompting banishment from my friends…”

A soft, gentle back rub, which happened to come from my former first roommate, stopped me. “You know we would never let that happen. And even if it did, we wouldn’t banish you. You know that.”

“A-a-and… he didn’t… d-did he?” Hunter added, trying to sound hopeful.

“That’s true. He didn’t…” That helped me, big time. “I guess I’m overthinking a lot of things since we got here.”

He slowly nodded, almost as if he understood. “I… t-tend to do that… too… s-sometimes… but… i-it’s okay.”

“There, you see!” Odd pointed out. “Even Hunter agrees with you!”

I smiled a bit. Even though I just met the boy, he and I had at least one thing in common.

Yumi nodded, with a calm smile on her face, as she looked at me. “So don’t worry, Cassidy. Everything’s going to be okay. We’re all in this together, don’t forget.”

Her gaze then turned to Hunter. “And don’t you worry, either, Hunter. We’re certainly not gonna leave you behind.”

This seemed to help calm Hunter a bit more, as he began to smile, while still looking a bit shaken up. But I could tell he was trying to relax.

“T… thank you…” he replied, closing his eyes for a few seconds.

I nodded. “Thanks, Yumi.”

“Don’t mention it,” the geisha replied, giving my back another soft, soothing rub to reassure me.

Even Ulrich smiled as well, happy to see that I was a bit more relaxed. Which is good, since I bet he was quite worried and afraid, too, even if he was one of the best at hiding it, out of all of us.

While Yumi continued to rub my back, I watched her pull Hunter a bit closer to her, hoping to help him relax even more. It made me smile to see him look a bit calmer, as he wrapped his arms around Yumi. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aelita pull something out of the pocket on her dress. Turning my head, I was slightly surprised to see that it was Mister Pück, her elf.

“Where did you get enough time to grab him?” I asked curiously.

“When Sissi was screaming, and you yelled at Jeremie, I grabbed him off my bed and stuffed him in my pocket. I didn’t know when I’d see him again,” she replied, sweetly.

“Makes me wish I had enough time to pack my Hippity, at least, but I understand where you’re coming from,” I nodded, not wanting to hurt my former first roommate’s feelings. The last thing I wanted to do was make her cry, after all.

“Ow!” Sister cried out, having just rubbed her neck, making me wince in sympathy as mine flared. “Why’d they have to go for our necks?!”

“If I find the answer, I’ll let you know,” I cringed, not sure of the answer myself.

“Did they think it would… get into our bloodstream… faster, that way?” Hunter asked, pulling his head away from Yumi a bit, so her shirt wouldn’t muffle what he said.

My eyes widened, remembering a lesson from Mrs. Hertz and the vascular system, then our possibly-late gym teacher’s ridiculous story about a beaver. “Our jugular vein… That would have carried it to the heart to spread to the rest of the body.”

“Which would have caused each of us to lose consciousness even faster, than if they had inserted them into our arms,” Jeremie agreed, a grin spreading across his features. “Well done, Cassidy!”

“And with so much adrenaline in my system, I would have been the first to conk out,” I blinked. “I forced my stress down so many times, but it still spread. And when Yumi told me it was okay to be afraid, it ran through…”

“So if you hadn’t lowered your defenses,” Einstein theorized, “it’s possible you might have been able to slow the sedative’s progression throughout your bloodstream, which would have kept you awake longer, and possibly allowed you to try and alert others to what was going on, before they took us away.”

“But wouldn’t screaming have brought even more Erasers and white-coated men toward us?” Ulrich interjected.

I pursed my lips, like the time Odd messed up the word quantum in “quantum physics.” “ _Whitecoats_.”

“Okay, _whitecoats._ ” Ulrich’s face went neutral, like the semantics didn’t matter to him. “What if they brought more Erasers with them, instead of teachers, or the police, instead?”

“The police station is too far from Kadic, remember, Ulrich?” Yumi asked. “It took us almost an hour to get Peter Duncan there while he was still unconscious.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” I could tell Ulrich didn’t look very happy that we had blown his argument wide open. “And besides, the teachers probably wouldn’t have done anything to help, anyway. Look what they did to Jim.”

“I think they incapacitated every teacher, including Mr. Delmas,” Jeremie shuddered.

Sister’s eyes widened. Right away, I knew Jeremie shouldn’t have said that.

“D-do you think they…?” she quivered, covering her mouth with her hands.

“I don’t think so. I’m sure they sedated those that tried to interfere, but the only ones that I could think of that would are Mrs. Hertz, Jim, Mr. Delmas, Mr. Fumet, Mrs. Mayer, Mrs. Kensington, and possibly Rosa,” I attempted to soothe her. “Besides, if we woke up, so should they, right?”

She pulled her hands away from her mouth, a glimmer of hope slowly overtaking her face. “You’re right, dear sister. But what do you think they’ll do, when they do wake up?”

“Investigate our disappearances?” Odd cut in. “They’re bound to find us missing.”

“Odd’s right,” Ulrich nodded. “When your father got possessed to kidnap Cassidy and Odd, Jim called the police.”

Sister nodded. “But how long will it take…? Oh, I hope they find us soon… I don’t even wanna think about what they’re gonna do to us…!”

Oh, why did she have to remind me of that?! I didn’t like the thought of that any more than she did… Oh, just after Yumi had helped me to calm down… now I just needed to relax…

And Yumi must have seen this, because I felt her pull me closer to her, until I could hear Hunter’s calm breathing, while she started to rub both of our backs. And then another pair of arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Hey, relax, Cat Girl…” I figured Odd would be the one to do that. “Don’t worry about it. We’re all here.”

Slowly, my mind screeched to a halt, feeling my lungs fill all the way with air. “S-sorry…”

“It’s okay,” Yumi soothed. “They’re gonna have to get through all of us, first. Don’t worry.”

I nodded in her shirt. “It scares me so much. I thought that Max’s word of warning in the first page was just a hook to keep me invested in the story—even though they were just words on the page, they were very convincing—I didn’t think that it would come true in our lives…!”

Hunter nodded, his words almost muffled by Yumi’s shirt. “Me, too!”

Yumi’s eyes widened, like she was a bit surprised by what I had said. “That _is_ interesting… but maybe it’s just a… coincidence, you know?”

“It’s gotta be,” Kaitlyn agreed. “I mean, how were any of us to know that those words were going to come to bite us? It does sound like something to keep you reading. I’m sure the author didn’t mean them like that.”

It was Patrick’s turn, next. “How could he have known, anyway?”

But Sister seemed to think the same way I did. “This is all really surreal… are you sure we’re not still asleep, after our party, last night?”

“If we are, I blame Odd for spiking the punch surreptitiously.” Ulrich lowered his head, glaring at his former roommate.

“But I didn’t do it!” _Mi novio_ objected. “And besides, I had a bit of it, too, and it wasn’t like that, okay? It tasted like some fruit punch Rosa had in the back!”

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot about that, Odd,” I gasped. “I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t worry, Cat Girl,” he gave me a bit of a smirk of reassurance. “It tasted great, though! I’m surprised you didn’t want more than one drink.”

“I was more excited that we weakened XANA than thirsty.” I tried to giggle, but the rest of my body didn’t feel that way.

“But at least we know it wasn’t anything we did,” Yumi added calmly, as she kept softly rubbing both my back, and Hunter’s. “We were just so happy we weakened XANA, we had more fun than we thought we would.”

“And we can figure this out, Cassidy,” Jeremie reassured, rubbing my shoulder. “We’ve fought him, and now the whole school thinks we’re cool.”

Patrick grinned. “Yeah!”

“And if we weakened him,” Kaitlyn started to get a bit excited, “then we can take on anything! We kick ass and take names.”

This time no one called her out on the cussing. None of us felt like doing so. We were all still kinda frazzled from everything that had happened, so we just ignored it.

“I just hate to think of what they might do to us,” I fretted.

I wasn’t sure if Yumi was actually thinking of the things they did in the books, but I knew I was.

“They’re not anywhere near as bad as Dr. Shrank,” Odd jumped in, “are they?”

“I really don’t know, Odd. But I’m sure that no one will wake up with one of Kiwi’s limbs on our navels,” I tried to lighten the mood a bit.

Instead, it only made him grimace, holding his puppy protectively. “Oh, no! Even for your standards, Cat Girl, that was terrible!”

I ducked my head, as though the Eraser riding shotgun had thrown something at me. “Sorry,” I squeaked. That just made me feel terrible about the joke I had made, especially since I was sure Odd would’ve made a similar one, if he had been in my position. He’s talked about that stuff before, hasn’t he?

“Odd, she was trying to shed light on this situation we’re in,” Yumi interjected, her back rub feeling a bit more soothing. “She and Hunter are probably more scared of this than the rest of us. She was just trying to calm down.”

This time, Hunter didn’t pull his head away from Yumi’s shirt. He merely shifted his head a bit, as he was still a bit freaked out, as well. “I hope none of us… get anything… a-attached to us...”

Yumi gritted her teeth a bit, both my and Hunter’s comments making her think of what happened to Max and her flock in the books. In reply, she merely slowed down her soft rubbing of both his and my backs, hoping to soothe and relax the two of us. She didn’t want to reassure us that it wouldn’t happen, because she wasn’t even sure, herself.

“Maybe they’ll just hold onto us,” Aelita hoped this would reassure everyone, “and demand a ransom from Sissi’s father.”

“Or all our parents,” Kaitlyn sighed. “Ma and Dad will have a bitch fit when they find out about this!”

“Mine will, too, I’ll have you know, Kaitlyn,” Jeremie jumped in. “If they find out I’m being held for ransom, they’ll go through the roof!”

“My mom will go even more hysterical than my father’s behavior before…that monster got unleashed,” Ulrich agreed, and I could tell he was trying to be careful about his choice of words.

“My mother will have an anxiety attack, my father would fare much worse, and I don’t know about my sister,” I feared. “And I would hate to hear what my substitute father will do.”

Sister grimaced, and I could almost tell she was quite fearful of what her parents would do, as well. “My father would get so worried, I don’t know what he’d do! And I don’t even wanna think about what would happen if he found out you were part of it, too, dear sister!”

“And my parents would go nuts!” Odd admitted. “My sisters would be just as worried, too.”

“And my parents…” Yumi lowered her head. “And Hiroki…”

“I don’t even…” I could feel Hunter tighten his grip around Yumi, in fear. “...w-w-want to think about… what m-m-my parents… would do…!”

“My parents would probably pull me from Kadic. What rotten luck!” Patrick moaned. “And I was just about to enjoy life there with my cousins.”

Yumi tried to calm everyone down, running her hands up and down both my back, and Hunter’s, as well. “Don’t worry, they’re not gonna hold any of us for ransom. They wouldn’t do that.”

“This is scaring me even more than ever,” I sniffed.

“It’s not going to be as bad as all that,” Yumi tried to reassure me. “Anyway, no matter what they do to us, we’re all in this together. We’re gonna make sure we all stay safe.”

“Making it through, right, Yumi?” I asked her, not even sure if I was waxing lyrical or not.

“Besides,” even Jeremie tried to reassure me, “they can’t take down all eleven of us, can they?”

“Jeremie, I think they did when we were back at Kadic.” With that, I was about to give up hope.

Yumi could tell I was close to losing it, and she wasn’t about to let me, Sister, Hunter, or anyone give up hope.

“What if they did?” she cooed to me. “They can’t break all of us. We’re still together. It’s gonna take more than that to get rid of us, and you know that. Don’t think we’re giving up. We can take them on. They can’t beat us.”

I could feel her words ring through every fiber of my being, and it pulled me out of the darkness. “You’re right, Yumi, and I can’t give up hope. I had high hopes that my EMP bullet would work, and it did, after all.”

“That’s right,” Yumi started to grin, while she rubbed mine and Hunter’s backs, soothingly and reassuringly. “And there’s no reason to think that we’re not going to get out of this one, either.”

“We have gotten out of worse fixes before,” I said in a considering tone.

“You’re right…” Hunter lifted his head away from Yumi’s shirt, briefly. “XANA’s done so many… crazy things to you guys… but you’ve always come through. This is just another… challenge… that’s all. One that I… hope I can help you with… if I can.”

Ulrich looked at him. “Of course you can, but it’s going to take some time. Sissi is still learning the ropes, too.”

Sister nodded. “And it’s not gonna be easy, either. There’s some things even _I_ still don’t understand.”

“Exactly!” Jeremie agreed. “But right now, I didn’t have time to bring my laptop.”

“Next adventure we are inadvertently forced into, I’m duct taping that thing to your back like a tiny dino who thinks he’s a turtle!” I threatened lightly.

“But then…” Jeremie started laughing, “how will I get it off?”

“Aelita could,” I winked.

I watched the two look at each other, before their cheeks flushed red nearly simultaneously. Not only was it funny to watch, but they started laughing, as well.

“Well, I…” my former first roommate hesitated a bit, “I could always try to take it off.”

I nodded, taking another clear, deep breath. So far, things were in the middle of the road. Sometimes our mood would lift a bit, only to plummet again. But whenever it would fall, someone, or something, was always there to bring it back up.

As we reached a silent spot, however, we suddenly felt the sedan slow down, before coming to a stop. I could feel my nerves intensify, and just by looking around, I could tell the others were feeling the same thing. The next thing I heard was the engine stopping, ending with a gentle shake that only lasted a millisecond. The front doors opened, and the Eraser climbed out of the passenger seat, with the whitecoat stepping out of the driver door.

Aelita quickly and quietly stuffed Mister Pück into her pocket. She was trying to keep a calm face, but anyone could have seen through it.

Hunter’s eyes zoomed straight to the side door, his face showing me just how afraid he was. I couldn’t help but feel the same. I was so thankful Yumi kept trying to reassure us and rub our backs.

Ulrich’s eyebrows fell, as he waited. He knew they were going to take us someplace, but I almost wondered if he was going to give in without a fight. Knowing him, probably not.

The door soon opened, and the Eraser glared at us, his fangs reflecting the sunlight, making this whole entire predicament seem even scarier. I started to tremble, fearing what he was going to do next.

“Alright, out of the car, all of you!” he snarled, pointing with his hand toward the outside, waiting for us to step out of the sedan.

But none of us did. We all just stared at the Eraser, looking anywhere from angry, to scared, and even neutral. Did he really think we were just going to “come quietly” with him?

He growled, looking as though our refusal to get out just made him angrier. And it had, as he decided he needed to do something else, to get us to climb out. I watched his eyes move to Aelita, not sure what he was planning next.

But I would soon find out.

“I said… _OUT OF THE CAR!!_ ” he yelled, as he reached in, forcefully grabbed Aelita, freaking her out, and nearly ripping her out of the sedan. Our eyes widened as we saw him do this, scaring me almost as badly as my former first roommate. I could tell most of the others were surprised and afraid of this, as well.

But suddenly, Jeremie climbed forward, and grabbed Aelita’s other arm, a look of pure anger overtaking his face.

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!” he challenged the Eraser, trying to pull her back into the sedan, even though the wolfish man was quite a bit stronger than he was.

My body tensed up worse at seeing the blond genius about to go up to the Eraser, mind going a million thoughts an hour. I told him how strong they were, and how none of us stood a chance! Was he crazy?!

“Einstein! Have you gone bananas?!” Odd cried.

“No way will I lose Aelita!” he growled.

“They’re stronger than you think!” Yumi tried to warn him. “They’re not gonna let you take Aelita back! We’ll have to find another way!”

Hunter gritted his teeth as he watched Jeremie fight with the Eraser to try and save Aelita. While he knew what Yumi and I had said, he was secretly hoping something might turn the tides in Einstein’s favor, even though he was still quite afraid of saying something.

“C’mon!! Help me, guys!!” Jeremie cried out, as he could feel himself losing his grip on Aelita’s arm. Just like I told him, the Eraser was going to overpower him.

I whimpered, knowing my strength wasn't nearly as massive as Ulrich's. But I also knew that Jeremie wasn’t about to give up his pink-haired girlfriend without a fight. It was painful to watch, knowing he was going to lose, and that any additional help, even if all of us formed a chain, wasn’t going to turn the tides in Einstein’s favor in the slightest.

Jeremie continued to pull, nearly grinding his teeth together, before the Eraser, with one strong tug, jerked both Aelita and him out of the sedan, sending the two flying onto the platform the car was sitting upon.

“JEREMIE!!!” we all yelled.

Kaitlyn and Patrick immediately crawled toward the door and jumped out, determined to save their cousin. _This is exactly what he wants!_ I couldn’t help but think as I watched. _What are you two doing?!_

“Is this even typical of the Belpois?!” Yumi turned to me, fear finally starting to show on her face.

“How the hell should _I_ know?! I only spent _one fall break_ and _one Christmas_ with them!” I trembled, voice teetering on the edge of shouting. “I wasn’t there long enough to know them like the back of my hand!”

“Okay... okay.” Yumi’s voice calmed down, as I started to feel her rub my back, again, to help me stay relaxed, as well. “I didn’t know if they acted that way while you were with them, or what.”

“F-for the most part, they actually acted civil…” I added, trying to let her soft back rub relax me.

“M-maybe it’s just…” Hunter suggested, “...familial instinct…? Even if they… c-can’t win… they’ll feel better… if they try it… a-anyway?”

“Maybe…?”

After I said this, I happened to look over at the door, noticing that Odd and Ulrich had crawled over to it, looks of anger overtaking each of their respective faces, as well. Ulrich I could understand doing this, as he wasn’t one to listen to reason in times like this, but Odd…? _Mi novio_ should remember what I told the two of them! This was getting ridiculous!

“Are you two out of your minds?!” I yelled. “This won’t solve anything!”

Ulrich just shook his head, like he was dead-set on intervening, no matter what I said. Typical Samurai...

“Cat Girl,” Odd tried to reason with me, “they’re gonna take Einstein and Princess if we don’t do anything! And I, for one, am not gonna sit here, and let that Eraser take them away!”

“Ready, Odd?” I heard Ulrich tell the wildcard.

“Better believe it!” he replied.

And then they both jumped out of the sedan, scaring me halfway up the car, onto the ceiling. Did they even listen to me?! UGH!

“Guys!!” Even Hunter was upset that they had done that, as he hugged Yumi closer. “What the heck!!”

This was too much for me. Jeremie and Aelita first, and then Patrick, Kaitlyn, and even Ulrich and Odd jumping out of the sedan on their own will, no matter how much Yumi and I warned them that it wouldn’t help anything, finally broke me completely, as I pressed myself closer to Yumi, and began sobbing into her shirt. Next to me, Hunter grimaced, closing his eyes as he heard me cry, as I felt Yumi’s soft back rubbing slow down, feeling a bit more soothing, as she did the same to Hunter.

While I sobbed, I didn’t hear Kiwi bark, moments before the dog hopped off the seat, and jumped out of the car, as well.

Sam, William, and Sister scoffed, creeping out of the sedan to join them, hoping they could sneak past me, while my face was buried in Yumi’s shirt; they were wrong. I heard the car move, and immediately looked up. No matter how blurry my eyes were from the tears, I still could make them out.

“William! Sister…!” I shouted.

“What is wrong with you guys?!” Yumi shouted after them, before growling when she realized her cries fell on deaf ears.

Thinking quickly, she looked down at Hunter and I, before gently leaning the two of us against the chair.

“I’m gonna try and get them back,” she declared, softly. “Hopefully I’ll be back.” And then she climbed out of the sedan, leaving Hunter and I the only ones still within the car.

A few moments later, I felt Hunter wrap his arms around me, even though I could tell he was quite bothered as well; I could read his face about as easily as the others could read mine. He looked out the door for a few seconds, leading me to get curious.

“Hunter…? What are you planning?” I panted, trying to collect myself.

“D-do you think they’re… gonna c-come back…?” he asked.

I tensed up, as I looked at him. “I don’t know… This is scaring me more than ever.”

“I’m… t-t-terrified, too…” he agreed, before taking a deep breath to try and calm himself, even if it was in vain. “S-somebody h-has to help… y-y-your friends…”

“W-what do you mean?” I whimpered, hoping he didn’t mean…what I thought he meant.

“They… m-might not c-c-come back…” I could hear the fear in his voice as he spoke, even though he was trying to be brave. “...and i-if they don’t… t-t-that Eraser is gonna… c-c-come for us… n-next… and I don’t… even wanna kn-kn-know… what he’s gonna… do to us… to get us out of… t-t-this sedan…”

“Hunter, n-no…”

“Then… w-w-what else are we… g-gonna do? W-w-we should do… s-s-something! W-w-why don’t you… c-come with… me?”

I shook my head, whimpering in panic. “N-no…”

I then felt him put his hands on my shoulders, as his shaking, fear-filled eyes looked into mine. “We’ve… gotta do… s-s-something…”

Squeezing his eyes closed, as a lone tear snuck between his eyelids, he turned to the sedan door, and slowly climbed out, his entire body nearly shaking in abject fear. He knew the warnings, just like the others, but he still climbed out, anyway, even if his body wanted him to stay behind with me.

And then I was all alone. Shaking in fear, all I could think about was what was going to happen to my best, closest friends, and what that Eraser might do to me, if he came back to find me still in here. What was I going to do now?

I pulled my knees to my chest. Why couldn’t this day be our first day of reintegration with our fellow classmates? This was the worst day ever, and I couldn’t see it getting any better, short of a super-powerful warrior showing up and destroying the whitecoats and Erasers. Where were Max and her flock when we needed them?! I knew the Coalition to Stop the Madness had them going to places, but why couldn’t they have a show here in France, where we could be saved at least?

And then my fears intensified, as the Eraser finally came back, glaring at me from outside of the sedan. Without a second thought, he reached in and grabbed me.

“Gonna be difficult, huh, little girl?” he snarled.

I squeaked, unable to move.

“When I say ‘out of the car,’” he continued, right before pulling me hard, “I mean… _OUT OF THE CAR!”_

He yanked me out of the car, and nearly dragged me across the loading dock, with a firm grip on my wrist.

“All your little friends are already over here, waiting to be taken to your new _school_ ,” the Eraser growled. “You’re the only one absent.”

What I saw almost stopped my heart. There was a chopper, sitting upon the loading dock nearby, its blades spinning, just waiting. Immediately, I flashed back to the day I flew in a fighter jet, thanks to a contest Odd secretly entered me in. All I could think about was XANA launching the jet, firing one of the missiles at the factory, the fear of the other one shooting us down, and then XANA finally killing the engines, sending it into free-fall toward the factory, as a last resort. I immediately felt my entire body tense up, and a panic attack threatening to overtake me, as my feet turned into lead weights, destined to stop me from being dragged toward the chopper.

The Eraser looked down at me. “Do you _really_ want to make this more difficult than it needs to be, girl?”

He could see a look of pure fear spread across my face, as I slowly nodded my head.

I began fighting his grip, not wanting to “go quietly” as they say. I first started to pull back toward the sedan as hard as I could, even if I knew that would be futile. I could feel my adrenaline launching me into a “fight or flight” mode, like it was devoting all of my strength to pulling away.

The Eraser merely growled at me, almost as if he was letting me try to pull myself back, while knowing full well that one good tug would send me flying toward the chopper.

Instead, he decided on a different approach: he bent down, lifted me into the air, and flung me over his shoulder, preferring to carry me over to the chopper, if merely dragging me wouldn’t work.

But that proved to be bad, as a whitecoat soon noticed what the Eraser was doing. I could see a pair of shoes come into my field of vision, as I stared at the ground, in the grasp of the Eraser.

“What seems to be the problem?” he asked the wolfish man.

“This one’s putting up a real fight,” the Eraser replied, “more than the others did.”

Fearing what the whitecoat might do, I started shaking my entire body, trying to wriggle out of the Eraser’s grasp; even kicking my feet, trying to get him in the back. Anything to make him let go, or drop me.

“Now, now, what seems to be the matter, my dear?” I heard the whitecoat put on a calm voice, as if he was trying to be Yumi. “You don’t want to go on the helicopter ride with your friends?”

I couldn’t bring myself to speak. Every fiber of my being just wanted to get as far away from there as I could, so I wasn’t thinking about anything else.

After a couple seconds, the whitecoat tried again. “You shouldn’t be worried, my dear. We’re just going to take you for a ride. Haven’t you wanted to see France from up above? Or go back to your home in Albion, Illinois, to see your parents? Or even to see your grandparents in Nebraska?”

Was he really trying his best to calm me? It wasn’t working at all. He was trying to coax me into getting onto that chopper, and I knew it. And I was against it. What was he going to say, that would make me change my mind?

“Your friends will be there with you,” the whitecoat continued. “They want you to ride with them, to get you over your fear. Nothing will happen to you. We just want to show you what France, and the United States, look like from a bird’s eye view. Wouldn’t you love to see that?”

That didn’t help at all. In fact, it only made my fears worse. They rose to a level I didn’t think they could reach, as I nearly started sanding down the tops of my teeth.

The whitecoat noticed this, and quickly changed tactics. Reaching into one of the pockets on his coat, he pulled out a silver object, which he brought closer to my head. I didn’t see this; all I saw was him moving like he was reaching for something, and the next thing I knew, I felt something go into my neck. Ugh, not this again!

“It’ll be okay, my dear,” the whitecoat pretended to soothe. “Why don’t you just take a nice little nap, and relax. Everything’s going to be just fine.”

That sounded familiar… before I blacked out again, I could hear Aelita’s soothing words, when her and I were in a tower, a year ago, and she was about to transfer her DNA sequence code to me, after XANA had used the Schyphozoa to steal my own. “Everything will be just fine.”

“Everything will be just fine…”

“Everything… will be… just fine…”


	4. The Chopper Flight

**Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. Hunter does, however, own his own OC, as I own mine.**

You’ll have to forgive the blanks in my memories. After all, it’s not exactly my fault that those whitecoats seem to like sedating me when I won’t cooperate… But the last blank-out seemed to take a very long time, before I finally woke up. And I wasn’t even sure where I was, at first. All I remember was seeing the others all around me, wondering if I was alright. They didn’t look very happy, either.

“Ah… there you are!” Jeremie was the first to speak, after I opened my eyes. “Thank goodness.”

“C-Cassidy!” Hunter was next; I think he was almost as freaked out as I was. “Y-you okay? You were… out for a while.”

“I-I think the tomato went west from Scotland to join the soccer league,” I mumbled, trying to make sense of myself.

“She’s almost there,” Ulrich remarked, giggling around the edges. “She’s not quite back to herself, yet.”

Yumi covered her mouth with her hand, finding it harder and harder to resist giggling, as well. “Yeah, ‘almost’...”

My hand went for my neck. “Ooh…”

“Might wanna be careful with that,” William cautioned me. “It might sting there, again.”

I nodded, still slightly out-of-it. “Is everyone okay?”

The others nodded in reply.

“Yeah. It wasn’t easy,” Ulrich added, “but they got all of us in here.”

“As l-l-long as things… don’t get c-crazier… after this…” Hunter commented.

Sister crawled over by me. “Why don’t you just rest, dear sister? Let that sedative wear off all the way, before you try anything. We’re all here.”

“What about Kiwi? And—” I minutely trembled.

“He’s right here!” Odd jumped in, holding up his little diggity-dog for me to see. “All safe and sound!”

“Where’s Aelita?!” My mind couldn’t quite stop overwiring itself. The last time I saw her, she was roughly handled by the Eraser.

Thankfully, my worries would be put to rest, as I felt a pair of hands come to rest atop my shoulders, as the girl in question hovered over me, a warm, disarming smile upon her face.

“I’m right here, Cassidy,” she soothed. “Don’t worry.”

“Are you okay? He looked like he would hurt you,” I inquired, keeping my voice level. I would never forgive myself if she ended up harmed by an Eraser.

“My wrist hurts from him dragging me, but that’s about it,” she replied, her smile unchanging.

My eyes widened. “What about Jeremie? Is he alright?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” The Einstein nodded. “Just a few bruises, but nothing too dangerous.”

I was slightly relieved, but I still felt the need to get something off from my chest. I gestured to the boy to come closer, and when he did, I reached up and grabbed the collar of his brown turtleneck, pulling him closer to me, until my bespectacled eyes were level with his own surprised peepers.

“ _What the ever-loving hell were you thinking,_ Jeremie Elvis/Albert Belpois?! You could have gotten yourself killed!” I hissed. “I told you that Erasers weren’t to be messed with!”

“I couldn’t just sit back and let them drag Aelita around like that!” he defended, his voice rising in pitch and fear. “And why are you so angry, Cassidy?! I told you, everything was just fine!”

“Refer to my second sentence, Einstein! You were putting yourself at risk!” I growled.

“Well, what did you expect me to do?!” Now he was starting to sound a bit angry. “Just sit there, and watch them treat Aelita like a rag doll?!”

“No, but use some _common sense_ with the two that had read the books—Yumi and I!” I tried to keep my voice level. “I know we were cadets in Jim’s commando camp, but you haven’t gained enough strength. Plus, I worry about you, too.”

That got him to calm down. “Okay, okay. I get it, it was a stupid thing to do. But nobody else was doing anything, and I…”

He lowered his voice, a bit of sadness taking over. “I don’t like seeing Aelita treated like that.”

“I understand, love makes you crazy, but at the time, the Eraser could have broken your arm or something like that,” I soothed, letting go of him. “I’m sorry that we weren’t doing anything to help. I think we were in shock at first. I could have kicked his hand, even if it didn’t do anything.”

Jeremie took a deep breath. “It’s okay. But it made me feel better.”

As he finished, rubbing his neck even though I hadn’t touched it, his darling pink girlfriend wrapped her arms around him from behind, before resting her chin upon his shoulder.

“That was very sweet of you, Jeremie,” she cooed, before gently kissing the boy on the cheek, causing a slight jerk to displace his glasses and a smile to form upon his face.

 _Yep, I can almost hear that Wedding March—possibly techno themed to suit Aelita’s taste—now!_ I smiled, having bore witness to the scene.

As another onlooker, Yumi gained a big grin on her face, gently giggling at the sight of the two, especially Jeremie’s reaction to Aelita’s kiss. She knew those two were as much of a match made in Heaven as I did.

“Anyone else slightly hurt from them?” I asked, my facial features unwavering.

Samantha rubbed her wrists. “Just my wrists, too. Man, those Eraser dudes really can jerk you around! I almost thought my hands were gonna fall off!”

Hunter shook his head. “Just a bit… f-f-frazzled… that’s all…”

“Not me, either,” Patrick answered. “I simply glared at my own and cooperated. I wasn’t gonna let myself get dragged around.”

“I almost got a hit on him,” Kaitlyn remarked, “but he gave me a gentle shove, and then grabbed me. But nothing hurts.”

“How about you?” Aelita gave me a curious look.

“Not too much,” I began. “My belly aches, my wrist slightly hurts, and my neck stings, but the pain is mild. Other than being displeased that I think they will jot me down as uncooperative for the moment, I think I’ll be alright. I still have those flashbacks…”

“We heard from the whitecoat that you were being a bit stubborn,” Jeremie noted, as if he thought it was interesting.

“Can you blame my own trigger about planes, jets, and so on? You know what happened about that contest,” I shook a little more.

The blond genius gritted his teeth. “Oh yeah… I almost forgot about that.”

“I ended up having bad flashbacks to that day. I swore I wouldn’t go back to flying ever again if it wasn’t on Lyoko!”

“Well, don’t worry,” Yumi soothed, as I felt her softly rub my arm, “you’re safe here with us. You won’t have to go through that, again.”

“She’s right,” Sam jumped in, grinning. “Besides, it’s not like you’re flying right now, anyway—”

Suddenly, I saw her clap her hands over her mouth, as her eyes got wider.

“SAM!” The rest of my friends, plus _mi novio y ex novio_ , yelled at her.

“You weren’t supposed to tell her that!” Hunter called out, making it the first time I’ve heard that boy speak a coherent sentence without pausing, or stuttering, since I met him.

I clenched a fist on the floor. I could feel my nerves slowly churning up, just at the mere thought. “W-what did she mean by that?”

 _Mi novio_ looked around at the others, before turning his gaze back on me, his tone rising in pitch. “Uh, n-nothing! She was talking about her trip to Tanzania!”

There was something wrong in the air. Odd rarely used that tone of voice, which set off warning bells within my mind. “Odd… honey? What’s—” I gulped, “—what’s going on?”

He waved his hands in front of himself, trying to sound soothing. “Nothing, _novia._ Just lay your head back and relax. You’re getting all worked up, again. And I, for one, don’t want those whitecoats over here.”

Something seemed fishy in the Alamo, and I could smell it. “Odd…?”

Before I knew it, he had crawled around behind my head, and was softly running his fingers through my hair. “I really think you need your rest, Cat Girl. You’re getting all worked up, and that’s not good for you. You already fainted twice yesterday, and you know what we’d think if you made it three in just two days!”

 I blinked, his soft caress making me purr, even though I really didn’t want to. “There’s something happening somewhere…and I intend on finding out exactly what it is.”

Now Sister was getting a bit upset, as she folded her arms. “Now, now, sister dear, it’s all happening in your head. Why don’t you just close your eyes and relax, like Odd wants you to do? You’re getting awfully close to overloading.”

That was a lie; I knew I wasn’t even close to overloading! “‘All happening in my head,’ huh? Then why are you all here? This would be so close to something called _lucid dreaming_ , right, Sister?”

“You could be simply in the middle of a daydream,” Jeremie suggested. “Perhaps when the rest of us got out of the sedan, you started to worry about what the Erasers and whitecoats would do to us, and that’s why you’re here.”

“Please, dear sister!” She looked like she was close to pleading. “Rest for us, won’t you?”

 “Daydreaming, Einstein? What you might be describing would be somewhat akin to _hallucinating_. Something I have experienced before with Odd and Ulrich after _Samurai here clocked me hard_ ,” I gritted my teeth, lowering my tone, as I turned to look at the brown-haired German-named boy. “And you know I don’t use drugs or anything. Not even all of you.”

Jeremie tried to keep his voice level, as he kept trying to reassure me. “None of us ever made the suggestion that you used drugs, Cassidy. We all know you better than that. However, we also know that, when placed into a fearful situation, one’s brain can involuntarily create—”

“Spare me your psychological speech! You used that on me once before, while I was _involuntarily_ vision sharing with Aelita—and I really hated doing that.” _My friends still acting weird, even my new ones, check again!_

That was when Ulrich stepped up to the plate. “Listen, Cassidy. What Einstein’s trying to say, is that this whole entire thing, with the Erasers and the whitecoats… it’s all kinda going to our heads. We’re thinking that we just got a few bruises, like on our wrists, and things like that, but really, they’ve started messing with us in all sorts of weird ways—”

“Ulrich, I’m not an _idiota_. I’m not dreaming, hallucinating, or having an overload. I can feel the floor, my pain, Odd petting _mi pelo_ , Yumi rubbing my arm, and my own emotions. So one of you tell me the truth, or I’ll just find out the hard way. Samantha here seems to be on the right track… I believe,” I growled. This was getting me nowhere. What were they trying to hide? Whatever it was, it must be super important.

Everyone suddenly turned to look at Sam, whose eyes widened in surprise. I next saw her squeeze her eyes shut, like she was regretting what she was about to do.

“Okay!” she blurted out. “We’re all on the chopper! We left Paris about a half hour ago, and we’re currently over the Atlantic Ocean, heading toward the United States!”

That was _not_ what I wanted to hear! We’re… on… the… very… same… CHOPPER I WANTED TO AVOID?! I couldn’t _believe_ this! Why did they keep this a secret from me?! I immediately looked up at Odd, giving him a look that was a combination of pure anger, and abject fear, wondering why he and the others would hide this from me, even after they promised not to withhold stuff from me! It was really starting to work my last nerve…

...and that was when his hands began to give me a sort of soothing scalp massage, calming me down a bit.

“Shhhh… it’s okay, Cat Girl… relax…” he cooed, grinning at me. “We’re all right here with you, and we don’t want you to overload.”

“B-but—”

“Trust us,” Yumi soothed next, as I felt her hands softly and soothingly rub my shoulders. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

My mind shot into overdrive, remembering what that whitecoat had said before he made my neck sting again. “Please don’t say that right now. It scares me. He used Aelita’s words against me.”

Aelita’s eyes widened when she heard that. “Huh? How did he do that?”

“‘Everything’s going to be just fine…’ You used a similar phrase when you were transferring your DNA sequence code over to me. I heard it when I blanked out. Right now, I don’t wanna hear that phrase.” Just the thought of it made me shiver.

“Don’t worry, though…” she crawled closer to me, finding a spot next to Yumi. “We wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. Those whitecoats were just trying to play a trick on you. I would never do anything like that.”

“Well, it works for now. It scares me,” I whimpered, eyes welling with tears. I swore my airplane adventures were gone for good. Why couldn’t I have been right?! Why’d they have to go and put me on a chopper, next?!

“That’s why we were trying to keep it a secret from you,” Jeremie was next to try and calm me. “We knew how you would react if you had known, which was why we were trying to keep you blissfully unaware for as long as possible!”

To punctuate his point, he sent a glare toward Sam, who threw one back at him. She didn’t look like she was angry at Jeremie, but something told me she wasn’t exactly happy about accidentally blabbing.

“Kinda hard to keep me blissfully unaware when you don’t have my favorite hobbies to keep me occupied,” I said off-handedly. “That’s it! Next inadvertent adventure, I’m stuffing my Hippity, my knitting and a few patterns, and iPod in my shirt.”

“You’re right,” Odd agreed, grinning from ear to ear. “Maybe we all need to have emergency supplies in our clothes!”

“I’m still in favor of duct taping Jeremie’s laptop on his back,” I smiled, giving Einstein a playful glare.

“How would you expect me to retrieve it,” Jeremie replied, even though I could tell, by the sound of his voice, that he was about as angry as Odd would get, if he and the others called him “scrawny,” “if it was on my back, out of reach! Or even how I’d be able to bend backward! And do you know how long it would take me to get the duct tape residue off from the front cover?!”

I couldn’t help but giggle at his retorts. “I’m kidding, Einstein! Jeepers, you act like Eddward ‘Double D’ at times. It’s funny.”

All Jeremie could do was blush.

“That’s our Cat Girl,” Odd smiled. “Always one for a joke.”

Sister giggled, as well. “That’s for sure! I don’t know where we’d be, if we didn’t have her with us!”

“Possibly a lot of things,” I blinked. “But that being said—” I froze mid-sentence. If Jim hadn’t been sedated, and they did something worse, the next few words were painful to cross my lips. I hoped he was okay.

And once everyone else saw the look on my face, nobody wanted to finish my sentence. It was like they already knew.

“I hope he’s okay…” I whimpered. “I really like him.”

“Yeah, he’s a good gym teacher,” Odd commented. “He always likes to yell at me a lot, though.”

“I’m his favorite player on the soccer team,” Ulrich added.

“He said I had guts in his commando camp. He is always proud of me now,” Jeremie nodded.

“He’s like a father figure, almost,” Aelita remarked. “He’s tough, but you know that he cares about you, even if he doesn’t always show it at first.”

“I still remember that kiss I gave him. He tells me everyday that that was the most surprising thing I did to him,” Yumi commented. “Cassidy, I know you really enjoyed his stories, but it was like you said. Maybe they sedated him instead of having him fallen in battle in France.”

“Even though I’m not as fast as Yumi is on the track,” William commented with a grin, “he still thinks I have potential, and tries to get me to build up more strength in my legs.”

“And he is the greatest at helping me with my cheerleading,” Sissi smiled.

“I still hope he’s okay,” I interjected. “I really miss him a lot.”

And the more I thought about that, the more it made me wonder… what if _I_ was the reason that happened to him? If I hadn’t unleashed the monster in the first place, the Erasers and whitecoats wouldn’t have known about us, and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point. That made me think this whole entire mess was my fault.

Odd grinned, as he tried to reassure me. “Oh, come on, Cat Girl. Jim’s harder than nails at times. It’d take more than that to take out good ol’ Jimbo.”

“You’re right, but I can’t help but to think that he’s hurt because of me!” I sniffed.

That made everyone’s eyebrows jump. Yumi’s came with a side order of surprise. “Why, because of the monster?”

My head went up and down, tears falling from my eyes. “We got surrounded, Jim’s down for the count, and we’re kidnapped right now… It all makes sense, doesn’t it?!”

“H-how could you have known…?” Hunter spoke up, looking as surprised as everyone else. “Just b-because you… brought that out… d-doesn’t mean you’re… responsible for… e-everything that… happened, because of it!”

“H-Hunter…”

“Hunter’s right,” Ulrich commented, crawling over next to his _novia_ before placing his hand on my kneecap _._ “Nobody blames you for the monster, or anything like that. We’re all going through this together. We rise and fall as a group, remember?”

That made a lot of sense, especially since it sounded like something Jim himself had said in the past. I sniffed, feeling better about it. “You’re right. I guess I’m worrying too much again. Yolanda’s going to have a field day with me when I get back.”

“Don’t worry about that, Cat Girl!” Odd grinned. “The only thing you need is plenty of Vitamin Odd!”

“Just think of the side effects,” Ulrich quipped, pretending to be afraid.

I cracked up at their setup. “Odd… Ulrich…”

“This is why you would make a terrible doctor, Odd, dear!” Sister grinned at _mi novio._

“I don’t think Dr. Odd would roll off the tongue,” Aelita squeaked, on the verge of laughter. “And Dr. Della Robbia is way too long a title.”

“Maybe he could call himself… Odd D.R.?” Hunter spoke up. “You know… Odd… and then his… last name, as two letters?”

“That sounds more of a vanity license plate on a car,” I giggled.

“That’d be a great idea!” Odd commented, looking excited. “Now I know what I’ll put on my car! But maybe you’re right…”

I rose to a sitting position, still slightly disoriented from whatever the whitecoat gave me. “Ugh…”

Yumi’s expression slowly morphed into one of concern, as her hands found my shoulders, once more. “Are you okay, Cassidy?”

“Just a bit dizzy, but it’ll pass. I’ve been through equilibrium attacks worse than this. Remember when I was sick before the monster had been unleashed, before Jim’s commando camp, and I passed out from a high fever and dizziness?” I asked her.

Aelita grimaced. “You lost a lot of bodily fluids that day. I was afraid you were going to get dehydrated, or even worse.”

“That was the worst. It was thankful that Jim—” I stopped, saying his name hurting my heart, but forced myself to keep going, “—had found me and rushed me to the infirmary.”

Aelita nodded, even though I got the feeling she still knew why I paused in mid-sentence. “And we’re grateful that he did. You know he doesn’t blame you, either, right?”

“I sure hope he doesn’t if we ever get back,” I frowned. “I don’t need that on my heart, too.”

“I’m sure that he’s okay, Cass,” William smiled. “He’ll probably want to put more guards around your HQ after this, and make sure we’re all alright.”

“I wouldn’t mind a hug from him, either,” I considered.

“He’d probably hug you,” Odd agreed. “He wouldn’t hug me, though. He’d probably say, ‘Della Robbia, have you gone mad?! You need to do five extra push-ups, now!’”

“You might be surprised,” Jeremie winked at him.

Sister was next to look over at me, guilt overtaking her face. “Dear sister… I’m sorry for keeping you from the truth. It was wrong to make you seem like you were in a mental hospital.”

I nodded. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you, but even though I really hate flying, the truth is better than anything.”

Then Jeremie bowed his head, closing his eyes. “And we should have told you right away. We knew how you would react, and we thought we could protect you by not telling you, but that was a terrible idea, especially since we all agreed to be more transparent with each other.”

“Exactly. Since you had kept the truth about the monster and my coma wrapped up for a month, but that time had special circumstances, so I understand that. Plus, from the way you all were talking, it sounded as though we all ended up at the funny farm.” I shook my head.

“But this isn’t a _funny_ farm!” Odd jumped in. “Where’s the honking pigs, or the quacking cows?”

“You forgot the tweeting sheep,” Ulrich quipped, grinning.

Yumi sighed lightly. “She has a point, you guys. We all acted as though she went nuts…”

“And to some degree, I did,” I nodded.

“But it was wrong of us to make you think that,” she continued.

“If I didn’t have these stupid triggers that flare up—”

“Cassidy!” Sister suddenly barged in. “We’ve had enough of you always beating yourself up over these things! Yes, we know about them, but you don’t need to keep making yourself feel bad, because of them!”

Then her tone turned soothing. “You just need to relax, dear sister. Trust us, we know. Your triggers are fine. Just don’t blame yourself over and over again, okay?”

Leave it to Sister to give me the right kind of slap in the face. She was absolutely right, and I knew it. “Thanks, Sister…”

“It’s not good to beat yourself up over these things, dear sister,” she grinned.

“I know, and I’m sorry. I just let it keep bothering me, no matter how many times we talk about it.”

“Now, now, dear sister… Maybe you should get some rest. We’re going through a lot, too,” Sister cooed.

“I don’t want to fall asleep right now, Sister. It feels a bit weird right now,” I whispered.

Sister gained a knowing, understanding look upon her features. The only other person I’ve ever seen give someone that look was Yumi. “Don’t worry, that’s okay.”

“Besides, this whole situation is still getting me discombobulated right now,” I shook my head. “I mean, Erasers attacking Kadic Academy, taking us prisoner. It’s got my brain in such a twist.”

“You’re telling me,” Patrick quipped. “I don’t think my life was ever this exciting before my parents transferred me to Kadic. I never realized you dealt with this stuff on a regular basis.”

“I was more used to XANA attacking than preparing for this…” I looked him in the eyes.

“Well, it’s not every day a bunch of wolves with feet,” Odd added, “and a bunch of guys in lab coats show up to take you away. I almost thought we were in _Hospital of Horrors!”_

“I thought one of your own horror movie dreams was coming true, _Novio_ , but once I realized the situation, I had to change directions,” I remarked.

“I admit that, while I’ve never read any of the _Maximum Ride_ books,” Jeremie commented, “besides little excerpts you’ve read to me on occasion, Cassidy, the thought did start to cross my mind that I was hallucinating something out of one of Odd’s horror movies, as well.”

“What’s wrong with being in a horror movie?” Odd glanced over at Einstein, pretending to get angry, but only for a moment. “Then again, I’m not sure you could handle Dr. Shrank!”

My gut twisted. “I think he would have the same thoughts that I feared about those dunderheads that took Aelita’s mom away.”

As if on cue, I felt Aelita softly rub my left arm. “At least we don’t have to worry about them anymore. That’s something that should make all of us happy, even Mommy and Daddy.”

“It does, Aelita, believe me. I just hope that the whitecoats aren’t thinking the same things,” I blinked.

Fearing Aelita’s reaction, Yumi moved her hands up to the elven princess’ shoulders, before softly rubbing them. “I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that, either. Wouldn’t the whitecoats and Erasers have gotten Franz and Anthea, too?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Schaeffer went to a hotel after the party to retire for the night, Yumi. I heard their thoughts,” I pointed out.

Ulrich’s eyes suddenly widened. “Hey, you’re right! What hotel did they go to?”

Sissi raised a finger. “Hôtel Restaurant Campanile Paris 11 Bastille—Le Marais. It was the cheapest option for them, considering they are still trying to get their bank accounts unfrozen.”

“That would explain their disappearance when we woke up this morning,” Jeremie deduced.

“But the _pregunta del millón_ is how are we going to get out of here?” I asked.

Odd raised his index finger, looking a bit unsure. “They um...told us not to try anything funny.”

I let out a gulp, when I heard that. _Great… just when I thought it couldn’t get any better…_

Seeing this, Yumi came up with an idea. “Maybe we can come up with some sort of plan, for after we land?”

“Maybe, but what?! We’d be almost five hundred miles shy of six thousand miles from Kadic! And they are faster than us, don’t forget,” Jeremie asked her.

“That’s true.” Yumi’s face fell, yet I could tell she was determined to come up with something else. “But there’s gotta be something we can do, isn’t there?”

“Well…” Hunter looked all around at me and the others. “Where are we… gonna land? Somewhere in the… United States… r-right?”

“Death Valley, California,” I answered. “The Erasers mentioned that place when they surrounded Kadic’s dorm building.”

“Bandersnatch.” He snapped his fingers. “If we were closer to the Eastern part… that’s where I live. We could hide out there.”

“They aren’t gonna allow us to run away, Hunter,” Ulrich reminded him.

His head and voice drooped. “Yeah… you’re right. I just… wanted to help everyone… stay positive, I guess. I’m sure nobody wants to think about… what they’ll probably do to us… once we land.”

I nearly cringed at that. The sad part was, I knew Yumi and I had the best knowledge of what they were bound to do to us, once we did land in Death Valley.

“That’s what scares me,” I whispered. “Especially since I already know… and Yumi does, too…”

“Well, whatever it is,” Yumi commented, even though she knew I was right about her, “we’ll get through it together. They can’t break us, if we’re all together.”

“And I would hate to think of what they’d do if they ended up separating us,” I fretted, heart going a million miles an hour.

I felt Yumi’s soft, gentle hands find my back once more. Oh, how I adore her gentle, soothing back rubs. “Then we just won’t let them separate us. If we work together, there’s how many of them, compared to us, right?”

“Right…” I lowered my head to Aelita’s lap, letting my geisha friend rub my spine. “But you saw how well that went over, back at Kadic Academy.”

“That wasn’t your fault, Cass!” William came in, ruffling my hair.

“It couldn’t have been!” Hunter agreed, before he slowly began to shiver. “They probably got you… the same way they got me… you try to run away… and then they knock you… down… and t-then… you wake up in a… s-s-sedan…”

“I was so scared, but Odd told me not to cry, then Yumi told me that it’s okay to be afraid…” I shivered, tensing into a ball.

“I thought they were like Dr. Shrank’s creatures,” Odd remarked. “If you show them no fear, they’ll realize they don’t hold any power over you.”

“But Cassidy and Hunter aren’t as emotionally strong as you are,” Yumi interjected. “They can pretend to be strong, but sooner or later, it’s going to falter.”

“Plus, our situation scrambled my mind, causing me more overload than anything,” I whimpered.

“We understand,” Yumi replied, as she kept softly rubbing my back. “It surprised us, too. We’ve dealt with XANA’s attacks before, but this wasn’t like anything he’s ever pulled. That’s probably why you reacted the way you did.”

“Yeah, I can deal with almost ninety MegaTanks, easy, but this is nothing I’ve ever experienced in my battles with XANA. This is so surreal…”

“Eighty-seven,” Hunter raised his right index finger, correcting me. “And I still can’t… believe that… that was just so… so…”

“Incredible,” Aelita smiled.

“And, Hunter, I was rounding to the nearest ten. It’s okay, you didn’t know,” I grinned a bit.

He let out a deep breath, his expression slowly relaxing. “Yeah… you’re right. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” I nodded, slowly uncurling from my ball. “I just never experienced a kidnapping of this caliber before. The first one barely fazed me, and the second one, Yumi saved me. And even when I started to share target stats with Aelita, XANA just put me on Lyoko with her, not even bothering to separate us.”

“That was… really interesting. And I’ve never been… kidnapped before. It’s just really weird… I don’t even… know why they grabbed me… in the first place… I mean… what good would I be to them? Unless they just… wanted to help me meet… some incredible heroes that I… never knew existed for the… longest time.”

“I guess that’s a win,” Kaitlyn nodded, having just walked back to us. “We’re still over the Atlantic, and we passed Ireland.”

Ulrich looked over at her. “How much farther do you think it’ll be?”

“My guess is, we’ll be there in about ten hours,” Jeremie shrugged, answering the question for her.

I pulled my knees to my chest. “I hate this.”

Sister immediately looked over at Kaitlyn. “You probably shouldn’t have told her where we were!”

“Hey!” Kaitlyn shot back. “I thought we weren’t keeping secrets from her anymore, huh!”

“Plus, she shot through our blissful inattention plan as though it was a target after my blurt-out,” Sam pointed out.

“HEY!” Patrick and I shouted again. “It doesn’t matter. We’re in this same situation _juntos_.”

That helped me to relax, even though I still looked somewhat angry. “Plus I’m tired of all the fighting _entre nosotros_.”

Aelita nodded in agreement, a determined look crossing her features. “So am I. I think we should all stay calm, and take things as they come.”

“Aelita’s right, ladies,” Ulrich nodded.

That quieted things down. For a few minutes after that, the only sounds we could hear were those of the chopper’s blades and rotors spinning. The way they vibrated the floor, if you weren’t as afraid of flying as I was, you could lay on your back, and it would probably lull you to sleep. But I knew none of us wanted to do that. We were more concerned about where we were headed, and what they were going to do to all of us, once we got there.

It was another minute or two, before I broke the silence, if you could call it that.

“I just wish this was some sick dream that we’re somehow incepted in. Say some bully did it and he or she could get expelled, but this is too real to me,” I grumbled.

“I’d love to be back in our room right now, too,” Sister nodded. “I could be giving you, Aelita, Yumi, Sam, and Kaitlyn make-overs right about now!”

“And I could be walking my Kiwi right now, after my shower, of course. And we could all go down to breakfast and enjoy some of Rosa’s oatmeal today,” Odd moaned. “Then we could have lunch with her meatballs and gravy.”

“That was a satisfying little snack when your parents came to town,” I whimpered hungrily. “It was a shame that XANA was still attacking.”

“I wish I could have had my laptop. I could try to connect to the Supercomputer and launch a return trip…” Jeremie frowned.

“But wouldn’t the old ‘Return trips make XANA stronger’ rule apply again?” Ulrich asked.

“No, Franz designed a program that counters that rule. He’ll have to find a better way to get us,” he ascertained.

“And after what we did to him,” Odd grinned, “it’s gonna take him a while!”

“Definitely,” I nodded, still laying on the floor.

Suddenly, I realized something. What if we had phone service out here? One of us could easily call for help, and have someone waiting by the time we landed! That would be perfect! Now if only I had my phone…

As I reached into my pocket, however, I got a shock; it wasn’t there. My eyes widened as I felt around, hoping that maybe it had fallen through a hole in my pocket… but it hadn’t, and there wasn’t.

“They confiscated our mobiles, dear sister,” Sister moaned. “I’m so sorry. I tried to save yours.”

“Your father gave me that phone. Now what?!” My face tensed up as I started to panic, once more.

“Wait... wait…” I could hear Hunter try to calm me. “Maybe they’re… just hiding them, someplace? I mean, they’ve… gotta be around here somewhere… and if not here… then maybe wherever we’re… gonna land?”

“B-but my parents! The police! We need to get away from here,” I trembled.

“And we’re going to,” Yumi tried to soothe me, giving a similar attempt with a soft, gentle shoulder rub. “We can’t do it now, but we’ll figure out a way, once we land. I’m sure of it.”

“I sure hope so.” I let her soft shoulder rubbing relax me, as I slowly calmed down.

“It’s like in _Snorkeling Combat 2_ ,” Odd quipped, “when Lance was waiting for the exterminators to walk off from the dock, before he grabbed their feet, and pulled them into the water! We just gotta wait for the whitecoats and Erasers to turn their backs, and then we knock them over!”

All that did was make me tense up further. “Odd, _Novio_ , I don’t think that that will work…”

“It worked in the movie,” his voice fell, before bouncing back up again. “I know! All we need is some rope! We can tie up their feet, and then it’ll be like they’re in a sack race! They can’t catch us if they have to hop after us!”

I know Odd was trying to calm me down, or get me excited, but it wasn’t working! It was only making me even more scared than I was before!

“Odd… I think you’re scaring her even worse,” Ulrich warned.

“We’ll… think of something?” Hunter suggested, even though he didn’t sound very sure of himself.

Since that didn’t help me calm down any further, Yumi decided to try something that would. She began to softly rub both of my shoulders, before slowly rubbing down my arms, going back and forth in a very gentle, soothing caress. That definitely hit the spot.

“I think we should stop scaring Cassidy for now. She’s getting way too tense, and if she overloads again, I don’t think any of us will be very happy,” Yumi whispered.

“Plus, we don’t want the whitecoats over here,” Odd worried.

“Why don’t we all try to stay calm, and relax?” Aelita suggested. “There’s not really much we can do right now, and getting worked up isn’t going to make the chopper fly any faster.”

“Yeah… that’d be nice…” Hunter folded his arms as if he was cold. “How do you guys manage to stay calm… whenever you think you’re… in danger?”

“Trust me,” Ulrich remarked, glancing over at him. “It’s not easy, but after a while, you just sorta get used to it.”

“It took me a while,” Aelita commented, “and even I still get surprised at times on Lyoko, but I’ve mostly gotten over it. I guess it’s just something that comes with experience. And I’m sure that the more you hang out with us, the more it’ll come to you, as well.”

He rubbed his arms a bit, giving a bit of a sigh. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I just… never thought I’d ever get… thrust into a situation like… this, you know?”

I nodded, trying my hardest to stay awake, even though Yumi was keeping me quite relaxed. “Me neither. I thought we were going to have our first day back at Kadic…but then…it ended up like this…”

“We’ll still have our first day back,” Sister tried to encourage me, “it just might take a bit longer than usual. I don’t think they’re going to do anything until they find us.”

My eyelids struggled to keep open. Man, Yumi, why is your touch so soft and gentle? I wished she’d go over and rub Hunter, instead. He was about as tense as I was, and I didn’t think he’d mind falling asleep. “I just hope you’re right… Do you think we’ll see that tomato win?”

That one almost caught Ulrich off-guard. “Dah—uh… yeah. He’ll even beat the, uh… eggplants’ star player, with his, uh… ripening power.”

“Uh-oh,” Odd suddenly interjected, “something tells me Cat Girl’s getting a bit too relaxed there, Yumi!”

One glance downward told Yumi that he was right. “Oh!” She added with a chuckle. “You okay there, Cassidy?”

“I think the tomato needs to go south to join the soldiers with their pie war…” I mumbled, half-drowsed.

“I think she’s getting a bit sleepy,” Hunter commented, a slight grin forming on his features. “Didn’t she say she wanted to stay awake, though?”

Yumi nodded. “I guess I pressed on a nerve point.”

He gritted his teeth a bit. “That might do it…”

His eyes then scanned the other occupants of the chopper, looking a bit unsure. “Should we try to wake her up a bit, or…?”

“I think I have an idea. That monster showed me something I never had the chance to use,” Odd grinned, clearing his throat. “Princess and Einstein, won’t you cover your ears?”

Aelita and Jeremie responded by pressing their index fingers into their ears, Jeremie with an “I don’t like where this is going” look on his face.

“Cat Girl, it’s hideous, Aelita’s ran away with Hervé!” _mi novio_ cried.

Immediately, I shot up. “Huh?!” Did he just say what I _think_ he just said?!

“There you are, Cat Girl!” Odd tried to keep himself from laughing. “I had to do something! You were getting a bit _too_ relaxed!”

Everyone except Aelita and Jeremie burst out laughing, with Hunter chuckling slightly, feeling a bit better about the whole situation. He didn’t fully understand the joke, but hearing the others laugh gave him the want to join in.

“But at least you’re awake, now,” the black-haired, green-clad boy commented.

“I guess I got somewhat out of it,” I muttered.

Odd gestured to the two to pull their fingers out of their ears. “It’s over.”

“Yeah, we can see that, Odd,” Jeremie growled.

I shivered slightly, but more out of cold than fear. “I’m so glad I’m wearing a pink sweater.”

“Me, too, Cassidy,” Kaitlyn smiled.

Patrick stretched his legs. “Besides, we need to make the most of this situation while we can.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Hunter agreed, laying backward, and stretching his arms and legs as well. “We’ll be here for a while.”

“So, who knows any good car games?” Odd randomly suggested. “What about ‘I Spy’?”

“What car games, and we would only be seeing nothing but ocean forever,” Ulrich sighed.

“I think I know one of them, considering we played before,” I suggested.

Jeremie was sure he knew where I was headed. “90 Second Alphabet? That’s a car game?”

“I’ve played with my Grandparents on long trips before. Otherwise there’s another Alphabet game, but the problem is that we aren’t even on the road. So we can’t do that one,” I nodded.

“Why’s that?” Ulrich asked.

“It involves finding words around trucks, signs, license plates, and more, but unfortunately, that ain’t happening,” I deadpanned.

“What about other helicopters?” Odd joked. “Or airplanes?”

That made my heart squeeze in panic. What did he just say?!

“Odd… That would involve her looking _out the window_ ,” Yumi reminded him, a tiny tinge of anger in her voice.

I nodded, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. There was no way I was _ever_ doing that!

“O-Okay, bad idea,” he backed off, grimacing in fear.

“What about that 90 Second Alphabet game?” my ex suggested, hoping to change the subject.

“That sounds like a better idea,” I quickly said.

So that’s what we did. And we really got into it, too. Before long, we had forgotten how much time we actually spent playing, and the sky still light outside didn’t help me any. However, a slight draft entered the air, generating shivers from all of us.

“S-Something t-tells me we-we just hit Gr-Greenland…” Jeremie couldn’t help keep his teeth from chattering.

I really hoped he was wrong. I was nowhere near as warm on the inside as some of the others were, so the thought of flying over Greenland… why couldn’t it have been Iceland? The climate would be much warmer, the people—oh, wait… on second thought, I could deal with Greenland.

As I continued to shiver, I suddenly felt Yumi gather me up into her arms, and hug me close to herself, in an effort to keep me warm. William soon crawled over to me, and began softly rubbing my legs, hoping that would keep the rest of me warm, as well.

Hunter started rubbing his arms, trying to stop his own teeth from chattering. Even though he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt, I was sure he hadn’t counted on being flown over Greenland, either. I watched Aelita warmly embrace Jeremie, Sam come over to cuddle Odd, and Ulrich crawl over with Yumi, William and I, with Patrick and Kaitlyn trying to keep themselves warm, before Hunter crawled over between Jeremie, Aelita, Yumi, William, Ulrich and I, trying to find a place where he could keep warm, as well.

“I-I guess n-next is C-Canada?” Aelita whimpered slightly.

“O-once we-we get p-past Quebec and O-Ontario… we s-should be ge-getting warmer…” Jeremie trembled.

When Einstein mentioned Quebec, I instantly thought of the time Jim, Jeremie, and I were trapped in that cave, as part of Jim’s commando camp. And that reminded me of Jim’s condition, and that I still hoped he was okay.

“H-how about we p-pack s-some wa-warm clothes with us, t-too…” Sister moaned, in mention of one of our previous conversations.

“It’s not l-l-like we leave K-K-Kadic, thinking that we’re gonna sk-ski off the top of M-Mount Everest,” Ulrich quipped, trying to get warm while sitting between Yumi and William, his _novia_ reaching over to embrace him with her other arm, as well.

“M-m-maybe we should start… being pr-pr-prepared… for a-anything,” Hunter suggested, his arms crossed in front of himself, his hands rubbing them furiously as he found a place on Yumi’s other side.

“Y-y-y-y-yes…” I stuttered, my body threatening to seize on me if I didn’t find a warm spot.

I could still feel Yumi cuddling me against her body with her free arm, trying to keep me warm, as William essentially hugged my legs, wrapping part of his jacket around them. Hopefully we’d get out of this cold spell soon.

It was a couple more hours than we’d hoped, but thankfully, the whitecoats turned on the heat for us, allowing us to speak without stuttering. Soon we were away from the coldness of Ontario, and into a semi-warmer climate in Manitoba.

Once the cabin had warmed up fully, Aelita reluctantly broke her warm embrace with her knight in glasses, before crawling over to the window, out of curiosity. Her face lit up with wonder as she gazed at the terrain below.

“And to think I picked that country at random while I was on Lyoko with that link inside me,” she warmly smiled to herself.

“It worked out great,” Odd commented, “because in Canada, they speak both French _and_ English, so you couldn’t have picked a better country, Princess!”

“Plus, I thought it was great,” I smiled.

Aelita flashed me a beam. “Thanks, Cassidy!”

“ _De nada,_ Aelita,” I grinned. “Or, as they say in French, and I’m still learning, _de rien_.” And I was sure I said that with the wrong inflection.

“Next up is…” Yumi declared, almost timidly, “the United States.”

Looking at my geisha friend, I gulped. “You know, normally, I’d be super-duper triple-meter excited about being in my _país de origen_ , but since we’re kidnapped and everything, I feel more… um…”

“You’re more freaked out,” Yumi guessed. “I understand; we all do.”

“I-I think Hunter is the same way...right?” I turned to him.

Instead, he was confused, scratching his head. “Uhh… I’m the same way with what?”

I gasped. _Oops._ “Sorry, um… I speak Spanish. _País de origen_ means ‘home country,’ where you originate or are born from. Your home country, my home country, and Kaitlyn’s is in the United States. Yumi’s is Kyoto, Japan, and so on. What I meant was, normally you’d be super duper happy to be home, but the whole kidnapping um…”

Ulrich quickly jumped in. “Right, what Cassidy means is, normally you’d be happy to be flying over your home country, but not when you’ve been kidnapped. This is your home country, too, right, Hunter?”

His eyes widened, now that it made sense. “Oh… yeah! Yeah, I’m from the US, as well. Maryland, to be exact.”

I nodded. I hoped that things wouldn’t get worse from here. We were already getting into warmer climates, and while that was a nice refreshing change from being hugged by my best, closest friends to keep me warm—not that I mind being hugged at all—it was also a sign that we would be landing, soon. Sure, I would have loved to see California up close, but knowing what would happen once we got there was not what I had in mind.


	5. Landing at the School and the Exam

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. Hunter and I only own the plot and our own OCs.

As incredible as it sounds, the landing did not come with a blank in the memory. Maybe because I was so glad to have gotten out of the chopper that they didn’t need to make my neck sting for a third time. I still didn’t like the whole “abduction” thing, much less where the twelve of us were headed after this, but at least I wasn’t flying anymore, thankfully.

In the dictionary, next to the word _distress,_ there would be a picture of a brunette standing next to a wolfish man, wondering what would happen if she started screaming.

Even though I didn’t know if they would let me kiss the ground, I decided against it, in case one of the Erasers decided they wanted to clock me. Besides, I’d rather just have my lips touch the concrete and grass, rather than my whole face, and everything below that. I didn’t even want to taste sand.

“I g-guess this is Welcome to Death Valley, huh, Cat Girl?” Odd whispered, careful around the wolfish men.

I cringed. “I’d rather not have my first memory of California be the inside of a research facility, Odd.” _Angel, wherever you are, we need HELP!_ “Even since I wanted to become a writer instead of being a lab rat, for real…”

“We won’t be lab rats for long,” Yumi whispered.

With a somewhat gentle prod, the eleven of us were led into the genetics laboratory. Despite the fact that normally, I’d be fangirling about taking a tour of the School, I kept my eyes on the tile that greeted my feet. I couldn’t let myself be subject to the horrors that were in the rooms lining the hallway. For the most part, keeping my focus on the floor kept my nerves calm.

“You’re doing great, Cassidy,” Yumi whispered, keeping by my side.

“So far… I didn’t want to get stung a third time…” I hissed quietly. “My neck is still killing me for that.”

“Just keep going the way you’re going, and you should be okay,” she reassured me, before glancing toward the back. “How about you, Hunter?”

He blinked, looking a bit tense. “F-for the most part… n-not too bad… this place really… gives me the c-c-creeps… though…”

“It does to me, too, Hunter. And I’ve seen brains in a chamber in Siberia that made me gag,” I kept my voice low, shuddering slightly. For an unfathomable reason, I was glad I didn’t have anything to eat that day. I knew Odd wasn’t happy, but if they got us while we were in class, and we got here, then I would have lost my breakfast. And that would not have been pretty.

“You’re right,” Einstein whispered to me. “Now I see what scared you so much, when I teleported you over with Odd, Yumi, and Kaitlyn. This place is crazy.”

“I just wish this didn’t happen,” I murmured, brushing a strand of brown hair behind my ear.

“I don’t think there’s a single one among us who disagrees with you,” he added. “But we’ll get through it. Don’t worry, okay?”

“Why is it whenever someone tells me, ‘Don’t worry,’ I get worried, and I mean _worried_ ,” I hissed quietly.

“What do you expect us to say,” Einstein whispered back. “You’re going to be in for the ride of your life, and nobody will remember this adventure, except for your great-granddaughter?” 

“But I’m sure it won’t be as bad as all that,” Aelita cooed softly, next to Einstein. “Like Jeremie said, we’ll all get through this. I don’t think they’ll really try to separate us, anyway.”

“You never can tell with this place,” I sagely murmured. “But if they tell you to keep going on anything, just do it. This isn’t going to be like life back at Kadic, where we could be taken to the infirmary when we pass out or anything. They might do worse to you if you disobey a direct order—even worse than a slap on the wrist or four hours of detention.”

Ulrich grimaced, as he listened to what I said. Somehow I could tell he wasn’t happy about it, but now he knew what Yumi and I were talking about, before.

“Great,” he whispered angrily, “it’ll be like the Phys Ed class taught by XANA.”

And that got William going. “Hey, Ulrich, I had to live through that, okay? This isn’t anywhere near as bad as being under XANA’s control.”

I shuddered. “Don’t remind me. Being under his control was the worst.”

That’s when Yumi spoke up, trying to calm the two of us. “Hey, just chill, guys, okay? XANA’s really weak, now, so we won’t have to worry about that for a long time.”

For his part, Hunter was grimacing at the war stories being tossed back and forth. He had seen bits and pieces, thanks to the monster, but he had never really gotten any firsthand accounts, and along with the place we were in, this wasn’t really helping his constitution any. All he could do was shiver, hugging himself like he was cold, as he tried to put the images his brain cooked up, just from the mere thought of what my ex and I were talking about, out of his head.

After another minute of walking, we were led into a big room. I recognized it right away, as it looked an awful lot similar to the hospital room I woke up in. There were quite a few hospital beds, twelve to be exact, making me think they knew exactly how many were coming. If I remember right, this would be where we were going to stay, during our off-time.

I blinked, trying to bear in mind that my friends were with me. I also tried to remember all of Yumi’s encouraging words. _They were there for me. We’d all get through this._ I wanted to use them to give me strength, but somehow I felt as though I’d need a bit more help than that.

“Looks like we found our vacancy,” Odd sang in an attempt to brighten the mood.

But it didn’t work; instead, Einstein just glared at him. “Odd, this isn’t the time for jokes.”

“Ease up on _mi novio_ , Jeremie. He was just trying to help,” I tried to sound defensive, but my tone fell weak against all else. If anything, I needed my mood to be brightened.

That did manage to ease Jeremie, a bit. “You’re right. This whole entire thing is really getting to me. I didn’t mean to take it out on you, Odd.”

“Don’t sweat it, Einstein,” my wildcard smiled slightly. “Everything’s cool! And if this room looks like the hospital, I wonder if we get room service here, too?”

“I wouldn’t bet the house on that one,” I warned.

Nearby, Hunter sighed. “I think we… a-all… need to find a way to… r-r-relax… We’re all getting r-r-really tense…”

“Hunter is right,” Ulrich ascertained. “We can’t be angry all the time.”

“You’re both right,” William agreed. “It’s just, being a prisoner of XANA still haunts me. It’s something I wish I could forget, but I know I can’t. I didn’t mean to take it out on you, Ulrich, but you have to understand, that isn’t something I take lightly. I hurt all of you, especially Cass, because of it. That’s not something I can sleep peacefully at night, knowing about.”

“I know, William,” I nodded. “I feel—uh, felt—as though I hurt many people, too.” I raised my mental shield, not wanting to get yet another lecture that I shouldn’t beat myself up because of my baggage.

“I’ve hurt people, too,” Sister chimed in, next. “I was mean, cruel, and a big snob. I didn’t have any friends; and before you ask, no, Nicholas and Hervé just followed me around like puppies.”

Kiwi yipped. _HEY!_

“Sister, Kiwi’s a bit offended you said that.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, as she bent down near _mi novio’s_ diggity dog. “And I’ve hurt dogs, too! I’m sorry, Kiwi. I didn’t mean it like that.”

She gave the dog a gentle stroke on the top of his head, before returning to full height. “As I was saying, I didn’t have any friends, because I was so mean and snobby. I know not everyone will forgive me, but I hope at least you all will.”

“With that spa day, and then helping me through my many meltdowns since everything happened, I can definitely forgive you, Sister. Plus you fought for my honor, too. That’s always a good thing,” I smiled encouragingly. “You even came up with the barricade idea while Patrick drew how it should go.”

Patrick grinned at that comment. “Best drawing ever!”

“And don’t forget that time you helped defend Ulrich against those Kiwi 2 robots,” Aelita came in, sitting on a random bed. “And when you protected Milly… twice.”

“And you even helped Ulrich with that bus!” Jeremie chimed in excitedly.

“And don’t forget about that time you helped me with the school photo the first time with no personal favor attached,” Yumi nodded.

I watched the smile on Sister’s face slowly begin to bloom more and more, as the others and I reminded her of all the good things she had done. I could tell it was definitely helping her feel better.

“There, isn’t that better? You even stayed beside me when Aelita’s visits to that one weird Replika became a detriment to my health,” I grinned.

She put her hands on her cheeks. “Ooh, I remember that! That was so weird! I’m glad we figured that one out, before something terrible happened to you, sister dear!”

“And it was nerve-wracking at first, to say the least, but it felt wonderful to get it done,” I nodded. “You even helped us weaken XANA.”

Her grin grew even bigger after I mentioned that. That had to be the ultimate retribution in her eyes, to help put an end to something crazy that she kept forgetting about, up until the monster reminded her of everything.

“This made me whisper in the showers this morning—I guess it’s still morning now—in Kadic, that _I’m proud_ to call you _my sister_. Sure, when you first said it, it came as a bit of a shock, but it marked a new change within you that I rarely got the chance to see. And when I say _I’m proud, I mean it._ ” I nodded.

Sister’s grin threatened to unzip her head if the tears in her eyes didn’t have anything to say about it. “Oh… Cassidy!!”

She suddenly ran up to me, and thrust her arms around me, pulling me into a warm hug that was filled with gratitude. Those words just absolutely made her day, and she felt as though she had been redeemed in the eyes of the people she cared most about.

I returned it, almost about to sob in pure joy myself. “I love you, Sister!”

Her voice nearly broke in pure happiness. “Oh… I love you, too, dear sister!”

Yumi couldn’t help but smile as she watched Sister’s and my warm embrace. She was also quite amazed by Sister’s transformation, and this essentially cemented it. She was no longer the snob she used to be, and she regretted it but felt better knowing that the others forgave her for her actions toward them. It was truly amazing to her.

Hunter couldn’t help but grin, as well. I knew he couldn’t have known everything Sister had done firsthand, but I also knew the monster had told him everything. But this was probably the first time he had seen the effects of her transition.

“You haven’t done anything bad to me,” he remarked, the touching scene he beheld calming him, “but I forgive you, anyway.”

As Sister gently broke the warm embrace she held with me, I watched her immediately run over to Hunter, and wrap her arms around him, next.

“And I never will, Hunter, dear,” she soothed, as he returned her warm hug. “Trust me. You’re talking to Elisabeth—I may hate it, but it’s my name—‘Sissi’ Delmas, Defender of the Weak.”

 _And I’ll keep calling you “Sister,”_ I thought happily in my mind.

“And I’m definitely glad to have you on my side,” Hunter continued. “I can see why Cassidy calls you ‘Sister.’ You’re definitely like a sister to me, too.”

“She is such a sweetie now. I may not understand the extent of what the monster did to make her change, but she is so great,” I nodded.

Aelita was taking it about as well as I was, even with Sister’s tears of joy in her eyes, as well. It was just so beautiful, she didn’t really know how to handle it. It was like she was truly getting to know the real Sister, the one behind the tough, snobby exterior she used to have before the monster changed her for the better.

“You’re right,” she agreed, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “She’s a real sweetie. I’m so glad she’s made a complete change in her behavior.”

Just then, Ulrich walked up between Aelita and I. “I never would have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it, myself,” he commented.

All of a sudden, the door opened, revealing a team of thirteen whitecoats, who walked up to each of us. I could tell from the looks on their faces that whatever they were about to do wasn’t going to be very pleasant. All it served to do was rekindle the fear within me.

 “Get behind me, Cassidy,” Samurai growled, shoving me behind him. “You don’t have enough practice with Pencak Silat; you barely even know the basics.”

I nodded, standing next to Aelita. “I think things will g-get hairy.”

“What do you think they’re gonna do to us?” she glanced over in my direction, a worried look overtaking her features.

“I don’t know. My powers are really useless right now. I can only read minds, and that’s about it.” I began before my eyes widened. “Wait…”

Concentrating with a straight face, I looked straight at the whitecoats, determined to get some shred of thought. Unfortunately, it was as though I was pushing against the middle of a slingshot; I couldn’t get a reading from any of them. “I tried.”

 _What a great time for that_ not _to work!_ I heard Hunter think, making my face fall straight to the floor.

I gave him a sad look. “I’m sorry, Hunter.”

In reply, he turned to look at me, grimacing. “It’s not your fault! Maybe they’re just onto you. They know about you the same way I was told, and they probably know what to expect. I don’t blame you!”

I nodded, looking into his electric green eyes. “Thank you.”

Before he could reply, Sister gently pushed him back, in a slightly gentler variation of what Samurai had done to me earlier, before getting into a fighting stance in front of him, facing the whitecoats but glancing over at me. “We can’t let them take us without a fight, right?”

“Um… since they stung my neck twice, I’d avoid it,” I gritted my teeth. “Plus, we’re probably still getting our land legs, so to speak.”

As I said this, I knew the others had to have been as slightly disoriented as I was. If that chopper took us all the way to Death Valley, California, from Sceaux, France, without stopping at all, we just went through six or seven different time zones without doing anything to take care of the jet lag. We’d be sitting ducks if we tried anything, and I knew it. And that was without whatever they did to make my neck sting.

I saw Hunter glance in my direction again, his expression barely changing since the last time I looked at him. “T-then… what are they g-gonna… do to us?”

“It could be anything,” Yumi whispered, walking so she could be between Hunter and me.

I shook my head. “All I can say is be prepared for whatever they’ll do to us.” I tried my hardest to keep myself looking calm on the outside, but on the inside, I was shaking in fear. We were all about to go through things I had only read about, things I thought only belonged in storybooks; never did I think I’d actually experience them for myself...

Taking in a deep, shaking breath, I ducked under Ulrich’s outstretched arm. I couldn’t really see any other options; if we tried to resist, we’d be knocked to the floor, and probably restrained. They might even make our necks hurt, again. So what were we supposed to do?

“Cassidy, NO!” Jeremie yelled.

I sent Einstein a distraught look. “Do we even have any other choice?! We’re weary, we have had a long flight—which I didn’t want—and none of us had the chance to eat anything. Even if we try to fight back—and that’s assuming we have a chance in the first place—they’re gonna overpower us!”

The torrents of fear in my system rising, I walked to the team of whitecoats in front of us.

A woman looked up the information on her clipboard. “Hm…McGuire, Cassidy…” She used her pen to point where in her notes. “Yes, you’re going with Reilly.”

My eyes widened, moments before I heard Yumi let out a gasp, behind me. We had read about Reilly! That rapscallion hurt Angel, only because she bit him as she fought him. To not cause a scene, as I did earlier, I turned to the short and messy-haired dirty blond man with sharp green eyes behind glasses, blinking once slowly. _Greetings, Reilly. I am ready. Do your worst, but don’t think that I forgot what happened to Angel._

He merely grinned maliciously as he took me from the room. Part of me wanted to kill him for his mistreatment of Max’s baby and call it a day, but I fought against the urge, fearing that they’d do worse to me. So instead, I just decided to lay low, and see what would happen.

“I see you were causing mischief in Paris earlier,” he remarked as I walked beside him down the hall, “but what caused this misbehavior?”

Grimacing, I struggled to find the right words to say. “I um… had a—” My eyes shifted back and forth. _Can I even trust this sadist?_ _He hurt one of the flock._ “—b-bad experience w-with a plane…”

It was close to the truth, admittedly.

“A bad experience, huh? You can easily turn a negative into a positive if you’re still living,” he replied calmly, even though I could hear a slight tinge of malice in his voice.

I swore my ex-boyfriend didn’t even have this much evil in his voice when he barred Yumi from the factory with his skateboard. Then again, he was an innocent soul. Make of that what you will. I clenched a fist by my left side.

“This will be the easiest part of your… visit…”

 _Gee, I can only imagine. You kidnapped my friends and me and sent us almost six thousand miles from Kadic. You call this a “visit?”_ my thoughts started to churn.

“You’re all very special,” he grinned evilly, leading me into a smaller room, “even with that—vortex—you unleashed.”

My eyes widened as my guilt started to claw its way back to the surface, once more. Just when I thought I had finally tucked it away, too! He _had_ to! He _just had_ to, didn’t he?! My fist unclenched as my self-loathing overtook most of the feelings of anger I had for him.

“Struck a chord, didn’t I?” he chuckled. “Yes… We saw that. Took us virtually no time at all to find where you were residing.”

_If I had a nickel for every time someone said virtually outside of going to Lyoko…_

He closed the door. Now it was time for my nerves to intensify, again. It didn’t help that I had a fairly good idea of what he planned to do to me. “This isn’t like your young nurse’s office, by any stretch, I have to admit. But you are here.”

I sat on the table without his command. I decided to just take what was coming to me, and not try to resist. Maybe he’d treat me more humanely if I do… if there was that type of bone in his body.

“Look at you, all ready for the easy part,” he cooed, but I knew that it was fake. He couldn’t care less if I were somehow his daughter. Then again, I wouldn’t want him to ever reproduce. There was enough evil in the world without little Reilly Jr.’s running around.

“I guess we’ll get started, then.” He lifted up the clipboard underneath his other arm and began scanning it. “Hm…”

While I waited for him to look over his notes, I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself. I was in a nightmare, to begin with, and I hoped that the others were faring a bit better than I was. Here I was, practically cornered with a foe, and I couldn’t fight him. The School would deploy Erasers after me, and that wouldn’t be good. After being handled roughly twice by them, I didn’t want him to do that.

A few moments later, he had circled a few things on the clipboard, before setting it on another table and returning to face me. “Alright, now I’m just gonna do a few tests. All simple stuff, really. And if you play nicely, I might give you a lollipop when this is all over,” he grinned maliciously.

 _Angel, do you think you can tell Max to rescue us, please?!_ _Things are about to get incredibly crazy in here!_ Why did they have to lock me in a room with this psycho?! It would’ve been so much easier if they had placed me in a room with another one of those whitecoats… but no, it’s like they just wanted to put their craziest scientist in charge of me. I’d bet I was some sort of treasure to them. They’d seen everything I had done, and now they just had to harness whatever powers they thought I had for themselves. That was the whole reason they went to all the trouble of flying to France and abducting every single one of us, wasn’t it? And now what was Reilly going to do to me? Can this day get any worse?!

Wait! Yes, it probably can...

After the examination was over, I felt a bit tired, but at least the psycho didn’t do anything that he would later regret. The only thing that I got from there was the lollipop he promised (I thought he was dangling that thing in front of me like a bone in front of Little Brother) and a plastic shunt in the side of my right wrist. He led me back to the bigger room.

Once I was back inside, my friends’ faces lit up, overjoyed to know that I was alright. They immediately rushed over to me.

“Are you okay, Cat Girl?” Odd asked, wrapping his arms around me.

“Yeah, I’m okay, Odd. Don’t worry. It was a simple examination, nothing more.” I returned the embrace, still a little freaked out.

Yumi quickly scanned me from head to toe, her big sister side coming out, making sure that he hadn’t done anything terrible to me. Her eyes stopped on the plastic shunt, a look of surprise overtaking her face. “Did Reilly do that to you?!”

“Unfortunately,” I sighed, cradling it close to my chest. “He worried I’d be like ‘Subject 11’—Angel—so he put it in. Not proud of it, but I was locked in a room with a psycho. What can I do? Plus, it’s not as though I could fight back.”

Sister wrapped her arm around me, showing me a concerned face. “Well, we just can’t let him use that against you!”

“Are you all okay?” I asked.

Einstein adjusted his glasses. “Mine was a little rough, but everything went as expected.”

“Well, you did try to challenge an Eraser,” I noted.

“I got a gentle whitecoat,” my “sister” nodded. “And she was calm around me.”

“The girl who examined me was okay,” Yumi remarked. “She was gentle but firm.”

“Mine was calm, too,” Hunter commented, before taking a deep breath. “I wonder if it was… because she saw right through my… attempt to be strong… but she kinda helped me… relax.”

“That could be. I wish I had yours,” I moaned a bit. “At least she wouldn’t flap her loose lips about secrets.”

Yumi immediately turned stone-faced, as she knew exactly what I meant. Even though she hadn’t been in that room with me, I could tell she got a pretty good idea of how the experience went, just from my comment.

I lowered my head, unable to stop my guilt from overtaking me. “He said it… and…” I shivered. “H-he knows… They know…”

Sister immediately wrapped her arms around me, to try and calm me down. “They’re just trying to break your spirits, dear sister! You can’t let them crush you!”

“She’s right,” Ulrich jumped in, sounding determined. “You’ve gotta be strong, Cassidy. They’ll only hold power over you if you let them! You and Yumi know what they can do to us, so you’ve got the upper hand as much as they do!”

“You know? It never occurred to me that I could have found a scalpel,” I grinned wickedly. “Maybe next time, I’ll try that.”

Aelita immediately grimaced at the sound of that. “Umm… I don’t think he meant in that way. That would probably only make things worse.”

Almost as quickly as it came on, my evil smile deflated. “Sorry, Aelita…”

“But what if there’s another way, that doesn’t get us attacked by Erasers?” she tried to cheer me up.

“Maybe, I just got caught up in the moment. I think I took another of many leaves out of Odd’s book,” I sighed but beamed at my former first roommate.

“You know me, Cat Girl,” Odd started to grin as well. “I’m always an inspiration!”

“So, what did you come up with?” the pink-haired elven princess asked next.

 “He didn’t share much with me, just took down some stuff, did some tests, and then the plastic shunt. Ugh… That was the worst. He tried almost five times to lift a vein,” I shivered.

Ulrich grimaced a bit, at that. “I would’ve loved to trade whitecoats with you, Cassidy. Mine was neutral the whole time. Never even flinched.”

“Mine was a bit calmer than that,” William remarked. “Not as gentle as Sissi’s and Hunter’s, but he was okay.”

“Another neutral one here, too,” Sam raised her hand. “She did smile a bit, but that was it.”

“I guess I caught-22, huh,” I frowned.

“You should’ve seen the guy they paired me up with!” Odd grinned. “When he checked me out, he told me that they were right when they said that big things come in small packages! Maybe you won’t have the same whitecoat twice? They might just shuffle all of ours around, after a while.”

“That could be.”

“If they do,” Aelita offered, with a calm smile, “I hope you get mine. He was really kind, and almost looked like a younger version of my father.”

It was as though a thunderclap entered the room. “Glasses? Moustache? Slightly mussed up hair? Thin as a post?”

She nodded. “Exactly like that.”

“You just met… Jeb Batchhelder, Aelita!” I gulped, inner torrents of excitement flowing within me.

Aelita gasped, her eyes widening. “H-he’s the one who rescued Max and Angel, isn’t he?!”

“And the rest of the flock: Fang, Iggy, Nudge/Monique, and Angel’s brother Gasman,” I nodded.

Jeremie’s eyes grew next, and I could tell he was getting excited. “Then… he knows we’re all here, and he can come rescue us, right?!”

“Let’s not get too high on hope, Einstein. He could be working on their side unless he’s acting as a mole.”

Ulrich broke the chain, becoming confused. “But why would he do that? If he saw the monster, too, then he should know who we are, and know that we’re all here, just because he saw Princess!”

I realized he had a point. “You could be onto something, Ulrich, but Jeb can be a bit of an enigma. He could work for us one minute, or them the next. We just need to keep an eye on things.”

“She’s right,” Yumi agreed, her face turning neutral. “We don’t know if we can trust him, yet. We’ll just have to make do, and hope that things happen in our favor.”

The room soon became calm, and I could tell everyone was thinking about Jeb, and how they hoped he could help us. As much as I wanted to believe it as well, there was something within me that made me question it. What if, after the time he rescued Max and her flock, they caught him, and forced him to return to their side? He was probably under stricter privileges now, and I couldn’t help but worry about what would happen to him if he actually _did_ turn out to be still on the side of the resistance.

But, as I got lost in my thoughts, I heard the door open one more time. In walked another whitecoat, raising our suspicions and defenses at the same time, but Aelita immediately knew who this one was.

“It’s Jeb!” she called out, happily.

“Hello, everyone. I noticed that the staff never gave you all anything to eat,” he nodded.

I felt my heart rev up in surprise and excitement, as I heard this. “You noticed right, M-Mr. Batchhelder. We didn’t even get time to have our breakfast.”

“And I’m so sorry about that. We’ll give you better adjustments for the time being.”

And that’s when he happened across the shunt in my arm, and his eyes narrowed. “Reilly?”

“The guy that should work in a car wash. Yep.”

“I’ll make a note to the Director to get him replaced. I’m sorry he got within three feet of you,” he softly whispered, and I could feel the genuineness of his words.

“He even used words… that broke me…” I trembled.

“I’ll make _two_ notes to the Director,” he remarked, his face softening as he saw my reaction. “And a strong suggestion.”

“Thanks, Jeb.”

“I’ll try to rescue you when I can, but for right now, heed what they tell you,” he reassured. “I still need to tell Max and her flock to turn to get here.”

“Where were they?” Yumi asked, trying to keep an even tone.

“They were about to head to Africa after that mission that involved Dr. Martinez. They were very close to their spot.”

“Africa… The CSM?”

“Yes, but for now, just get something to eat. We will plan everything else out soon,” he smiled.

Odd smiled. “Alright! I’m starving!”

“So is everybody else,” my geisha friend stated.

“I hope you brought enough to feed an elephant,” Jeremie quipped. “That way, the rest of us will hopefully get some, too.”

Jeb chuckled. “Of course. Plus that… monster, as you call it, gave us a pretty good idea of who Odd Della Robbia was. So we made a big feast.”

And he wasn’t kidding; he rolled in an enormous amount of food, the sight of which made _mi novio’s_ eyes grow to the size of tennis balls. The rest of us were pretty pleased, too. It was the first food we’d had in roughly twelve hours. We were just glad he had brought enough for each of us.

On the other hand, I was pleased that he didn’t use the words Reilly did. To hear those words drowned me in my own self-hate. Just when I thought that I could stay afloat of it all, that psycho poured several gallons’ worth of water into the tank. With Jeb, he gave me the hope that dragged me back to shore.

“I just hope we can escape before they do worse to us,” Sister moaned, worried. “Look at what they did to dear sister!”

Jeb nodded, understanding. “Don’t worry. He won’t be bothering her or any of you ever again.”

“That’s good news,” Yumi commented, calmly. “Cassidy really didn’t like that Reilly guy. He really had me worried, too. Thankfully, she only came away with that plastic shunt and a few emotional bruises.”

“He thought I would act like Angel, Jeb,” I remarked, grimacing.

“And while you have a few facets of her personality, you don’t look like her at all,” he nodded. “Well, if you get locked in the same room together with him again, you have my fullest permission to fight him.”

That brought back the evil grin I had, earlier. “Can I use a scalpel?”

“Cassidy!” Jeremie scolded.

“What…? He hurt me, I might as well have my revenge.”

He looked down at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “Well… maybe you’re right… but don’t make a gigantic mess, okay?” _What did you do to her, Odd? Give her villain training?!_

“Believe me, there are a number of ways I would love to get my revenge on him.”

Aelita gave me a slightly stern look. “And how many of them don’t involve using a scalpel?”

“I could try to find a way to push him into the Digital Sea, but that wouldn’t work. He’d end up working for XANA, Aelita, as soon as he gets his strength. I could always try to kick him in the round tables, but he could be wearing a cup, or even full armor under there. And don’t get me started on trying to get a black mamba. That thing would probably kill me first,” I listed.

“And you’re afraid of snakes,” Odd pointed out.

I nodded, acknowledging my fear. “So I guess we could drown him unless he was the relative of any escape artists.”

That shocked her, big time. “Couldn’t you come up with something a little more… humane?”

“Humane? Aelita, Reilly hurt Angel in physical ways. In a way, he’s a child abuser. I’ve read books like _A Child called “It”_ and _Abused but Chosen_ , and those abusers got away with it. Do you think he deserves a _lenient_ sentence?” I asked her, face falling somewhat.

She gritted her teeth like the subject made her uncomfortable. “Well… no, but… certainly, there _has_ to be a better way of dealing with him, right?”

“Fine. Sorry, Aelita. I didn’t mean to get way out of left field,” I muttered.

“I know you’re angry,” Aelita walked up to me, and placed her hands on my shoulders, reassuringly. “But trying to kill him makes you out to be just as bad as he is.”

“Just like I defended you when Sister had her bad attitude? Did that turn me as bad as her?” I blinked.

“That’s different!” Kaitlyn jumped in. “You’re talking about killing someone, not just making them back off!”

Suddenly, Jeb raised his hands into the air. “Hey, let’s calm down, okay? I know you want to do something terrible to Reilly, because of what he did to Angel, Cassidy. Maybe there’s a way that’ll make you feel better, but won’t do anything terrible to him.”

“Maybe. Plus he cut open a few emotional wounds that I had. I guess that’s messing with me, too,” I sighed.

Max’s father nodded understandingly. “He’ll certainly do that. But the trick is not to let him have that power over you. I know that’s easier said than done, but if I can’t get him out of your way quickly enough, you’ll need to find some way to stand up to him.”

“Just outwit him, Cat Girl!” Odd encouraged. “You’ve done so with XANA before.”

“Yeah… I did… But he’s a multi-agent system, and Reilly is human,” I blinked.

“You just need to figure something out,” Patrick smiled. “It’ll soon be a piece of cake.”

“Now come on,” Odd smiled. “Let’s go eat!”

So that’s what we did. With Odd having as many helpings as he pleased, and the rest of us going at a more leisurely pace, we ate in peace, not having to worry about anything crazy, for the moment. And it was a good meal, too. Somehow, after you’ve been starving yourself for twelve hours, for reasons out of your control, nearly everything tastes good, but it was better than that. I almost expected to have something akin to prison food, but Jeb found us a lot of really delicious meals, plus mouth-watering hot chocolate with _marshmallows_ , which we were all grateful for. We’d need to get our strength back up, anyway, for whatever we’d have to face, next.


	6. Tests of Wits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do own our OCs and the plot.

After our meal, the rest of the day was relatively quiet, and we were able to fall asleep in peace. Thankfully the hospital beds we were given were soft enough, even though I felt like mine was a bit too firm. The jet lag was mostly taken care of that night, and even though a few of us woke up a few times in the middle of the night, we mostly got a good night’s sleep.

The next day was when things really started to get crazy.

After we had woken up, we were barely given very much of a breakfast, before we were all led out of the big room, and down the hallway, just as we had the day before. Only this time, they weren’t splitting us up, and I hoped they wouldn’t at all, even though I had a sinking feeling they probably would. They had plans for us; they gave us a rough idea of what we would be doing, but they only left us with more questions than answers. Naturally, we were all curious, with a few of us quite tense, especially Sister, Aelita, and Hunter.

Of course, no matter how ready we thought we were, and even though Yumi and I already had a bit of an idea of what was to come, it still snuck up on us, and surprised us quite a bit.

From our examinations the day before, they easily figured out most of our strengths and weaknesses, as well as our unique skills. The only one that spent the longest time in the examination room was Hunter; he hadn’t been a part of our group until recently, so the monster never told anyone anything about him. But since he told us how calm and reassuring the whitecoat who examined him was, she probably got quite a bit of information out of him. This was what helped them all figure out exactly what tests to run on each of us, next.

The first few tests were relatively simple and had included all of us, some of which tested our ability to work together as a team. The first couple of tests didn’t go so well, but once Hunter figured things out, and Sister worked out her rough edges, we all got better.

And then do you wanna know what happened? The tests didn’t stop. They kept going and going. Then, to make matters even worse, they split us up and made us all go through tests at the same time, in different rooms, away from each other. The test they had me go through forced me to rely on my psychic abilities. A walk in the park, right? Maybe after the first four or five tests, yeah. But they kept going.

Soon, I was on the verge of passing out. This was the twelfth test they ran on me today.

A bell jarringly rang throughout the gym-like structure as rough hands pushed me into the beginnings of the maze. Angel went through this before, but she was younger than I. Why couldn’t they be satisfied?

Maybe they were trying to exhaust me. Maybe they wanted to push me to my absolute limits, just to see what would happen. After all, even though the books told me they had a bit more respect for their “patients,” I couldn’t help but wonder if I had secretly become their human guinea pig. Run through this maze, run through that maze… every single one of the walls kept changing, in-between. It was like they were deliberately trying to confuse me. And if I hadn’t been able to get myself out with my psychic abilities, they probably would have. But once again, it didn’t work in their favor.

Concentrating my powers, I figured out the exit in no time, but not before my feet felt as though someone turned on a grill. To not disappoint, I raced through the labyrinth, making false errors along the way. Why make them think that I was super smart? Plus, I loved to do those puzzle-book mazes in reverse (where you start at the finish and go on to the beginning). My breath came out in heavy gasps as I dropped near the finish.

Thoughts floated into my brain. It had to be from those whitecoats that were studying me as though I was some sort of mouse. _Cognitive ability, interpretive skills, creative problem-solving… It has all the abilities of Subject 11. Finish the glucose assay, and we can move on to the EEGs._

The shunt on the side of my right wrist hurt a lot, and yet they expected me to keep up with these tests? When would I see _mi novio_ again? I couldn’t go on like this.

Before I knew it, my vision blurred and stirred, as though they had sedated me again. But they hadn’t approached me, nor had they hit me with anything. The room just randomly and mysteriously slipped away.

\---

“Cassidy?”

The next thing I knew, I was back in the big room, laying on my hospital bed. Every single one of my friends was standing around it, some looked concerned, others looked relieved. But to me, everything was just one big, confusing mess.

“Are you okay, dear sister?” Sister asked me, putting my glasses over my eyes.

I swallowed, even though my throat felt dry. “You already know the answer to that one—no, Sister. I’m not okay.”

Yumi wrapped her arms around me, stroking my hair. “What kinds of tests did they make you go through?”

“Yumi, they had me run mazes… I used my own secret weapon but had to cheat it a couple times, so I didn’t have a perfect score twice,” I whispered. “They think I’m like Angel.”

“Wait,” Hunter inquired, curiously, “does Angel even have… psychic abilities like you?”

“Mind reading, gills—she can breathe underwater, same as Max—, capacity to control minds, shape-shifting—but that was only one time, so it’s not really confirmed—and I think visions of the future, but I don’t know,” I blinked.

“But you and she aren’t at all alike, Cat Girl. She’s what, seven?” Odd smiled.

I nodded. “She’s blond with blue eyes, but not me: my curtains match the window, except when my powers rushed online. But at least Jeb is talking to the Director of the School to get Reilly off my back.”

Ulrich copied my motion. “Yeah. The last thing you need is him bugging you again.”

William put a bottle of soda in my hand. “It’s Dr. Pepper. You need some sugar in you.”

That bottle was open in no time, and soon I had drunk half of it in one shot.

“Wow, and you say I pig out all the time,” Odd noted at Aelita.

Aelita couldn’t help but giggle. “She’ll do anything when she’s thirsty.”

Jeremie nodded in agreement. “Yeah, one time, she came in from gym class with a full bottle of water, and then she had downed the whole thing by the time I explained what the problem with my materialization research was.”

“It’s not my fault Jim had us do ten laps,” I defended, then frowned. “I really hope he’s okay...”

“I know,” he nodded solemnly.

“Even Jeb didn’t know what happened to him!” I half-shouted, my throat still feeling like sandpaper.

“Well, maybe by now,” Kaitlyn suggested, “he and the others have woken up, and are starting a search for us?”

I nodded, heart clenching. I really hoped she was right. That would be really helpful right about now, even though they probably don’t even know we left the country just yet.

“You know, if Delmas, Jim, and the others don’t find us,” Ulrich tried to raise the mood, “then I’m sure Jeb, as well as Max and her flock, are bound to save us, first. Either way, we win.”

“Yes, but right now, we don’t know what’s gonna happen to us,” Sister brought us all back to reality.

“I know. And not even the excitement that I’m back in my home country is helping me any.” I rubbed at a strand of my hair, trying to keep myself from having a panic attack, or beating myself up because I couldn’t stop this.

“Well, maybe this will?” she commented, as she began to softly rub my right arm.

Slowly, the claws around my heart released their grip, helping me to grasp a deep breath. “Thanks, Sister. If we ever get back to France, maybe we all could have another one of those spa days?” I smiled slightly. “It might help ease the trauma.”

“I’ll make sure you get the longest, most relaxing massage they have, dear sister!” she replied, a grin forming on her face.

“Just as long as you get rid of the wrap and the sauna, this time,” I beamed.

“Of course, Cassidy, dear,” she sang. “Anything for my friends.”

With that out of the way, my thoughts soon turned to another topic. “What tests did they give you, by the way?”

Sister’s expression turned sour. “First, they made me run five laps on an oval-shaped track, like the one back at Kadic! Then they splashed cold water on my face, and sprayed some into my mouth before they made me practice Pencak Silat in a room full of dummies and targets!”

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Yumi remarked. “They had me run laps, and practice Pencak Silat, too.”

“I started with Pencak Silat,” Ulrich added, “and then they put me into sword fighting. They gave me a katana, just like what I used on Lyoko, and I had a room similar to the one Yumi and Sissi were in.”

“What about you, Jeremie?” I asked.

“They gave me logic puzzles,” Einstein answered. “Problems such as  ‘Who owned which detailed item through a series of variables’ or programming a robot to run around a series of obstacles, before retrieving an object, and bringing it back.”

“That sounds like what they had me do, as well,” Hunter remarked.

“Aelita?” I tilted my head.

“Mine was a combination of Jeremie’s and Hunter’s,” Aelita responded, “but they also tested my evasion skills, by firing harmless lasers at me from different directions. It was scary at first.”

“I wish I had your test of evasion, too,” I giggled. “Odd?”

“Running and fighting, just like Sissi and the lovebirds,” _mi novio_ quipped.

“Makes me wonder what Kiwi’s were.”

Kiwi yipped. _Mostly puppy things. Locate the object, fetch this, dig at that…_

“Well, that is fortunate for you. Patrick?”

“Mostly the same as Ulrich, Yumi, and Sissi,” Patrick replied, “except they had me practice Aikido in a similar room to where you guys practiced Pencak Silat.”

“Mine started out that way,” Kaitlyn explained, “with me practicing my fighting moves in a room full of dummies and targets, but then they brought me into this room with a long swimming pool, and made me swim three laps around it.”

“You all had the fun tests,” I sighed, trying not to get jealous. “William?”

“Fight training,” William began, “but then I had an obstacle course, with rings, monkey bars, and even a rock wall at the end.”

“Bet that was great.”

Yumi could tell I was getting jealous. “Believe us, Cassidy, if we could have traded your training for one of ours, we would’ve jumped at the chance.”

“But we have no choosing at all. I get it. Your tests sound so simple. Like a game, but I get stuck with something one of the flock had gone through in the very first book. It’s a bit hard to sound happy,” I admitted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to run on a treadmill next round of tests. I just wish I had a little semblance of my other abilities, like gun shooting, or even pattern making.”

That was when the door opened, and Jeb came walking in. He then approached my bed with a concerned look on his face; on my right, Odd and Aelita parted like the Red Sea, making room for him. “Are you okay, Cassidy?”

“Not really. Jealous that everyone had variety in their tests, and I just ended up running mazes without any.”

“I saw your tests,” he remarked, a slight tinge of disgust in his voice. “I’m sorry they overworked you like that. It’s like they thought you were a lab mouse or something.”

“Funny… I was thinking the exact same thing,” I shook my head.

“I’ll have to talk to them about that. The next set of tests should be different for everyone, anyway, but they’re all tailored to everyone’s individual strengths and weaknesses. So you should get something else, too.”

“They ran me through _twelve freaking mazes_ in a row. No breaks, no water. I passed out after that last one,” I growled. “Now, I’m not mad at you, Jeb.”

He gritted his teeth. “I understand. But I still can’t believe they did that to you. They must be comparing you to Angel, since she had similar psychic abilities to your own, albeit hers were more advanced in different ways.”

“Only mine were somewhat of an enigma that _I_ sometimes didn’t know where they wanted me to take the next adventure. After the monster was unleashed, my visions have all but faded. I can only read minds, both animal and human, but it’s like a radar. Plus I wasn’t born with them. They came to me. It’s weird.”

“I understand,” he nodded. “Probably the reason why they’ve mostly disappeared is because unleashing the… ‘monster,’ as you call it, took an enormous amount of your psychic energy just to sustain. If anything, it might be similar to a sensory overload, and they’re merely weakened until the overload has died down.”

“That could explain her new meltdowns,” Jeremie spoke up. “Before, her emotions were all in check unless someone crossed her badly. Now, she has to have breathing times. Her mind had frozen her into a catatonic state at one point after she woke from her coma.”

Jeb placed his fist underneath his chin. “That would explain that. Her body must still be recovering from the release of energy.”

“But why would it take her voice away before the release?” Ulrich asked.

“It might have been her body’s way of fighting to regain control,” Jeb suggested. “It wasn’t ready for the release of energy, and so it fought to keep it contained for as long as it could.”

“Losing my voice was so scary and unreal,” I admitted, trembling.

“Even though I have no firsthand experience, I can guess what that might feel like. But what the other whitecoats might try to do, is find a way to accelerate the healing process, and this I fear. They will probably try to take advantage of what psychic abilities you possess while trying to cultivate new ones, possibly even ones you’ve never been able to use before.”

The sound of that was quite frightening to me, too. “I don't want to be a garden for them. I'm just a teenage girl!”

“Don’t worry, my dear.” Jeb’s voice turned warm and calming, and a matching smile sprouted upon his face. “I will do everything in my power to make sure they don’t force you into any tests such as those. You may be psychic like Angel, but I won’t let them treat you the way they treated her, any more than they already have.”

“Plus, she has us,” Odd smiled.

“I don't doubt that!” I nodded, relaxing somewhat.

“And I hope they keep you in good hands,” Jeb nodded affirmingly. “While I can only do so much, the tests they might force you all to endure may be similar to XANA’s attacks, and some may be unlike anything he has ever launched against you.”

He turned his attention to Jeremie and Hunter. “Along with Miss McGuire, they can see the potential in your mental abilities, that extends far beyond simple logic and recognition puzzles. I would be wary of what they might have you undergo next.”

A slight bit of fear distorted Hunter’s face. “What do you think they’ll… do with us? They’re not gonna… make us telekinetic… will they?”

“They wouldn’t do that,” Jeb reassured, “but I’m unsure of what other plans they may have.”

“What about the rest of us?” Yumi inquired, a bit of concern leaking onto her face, as well. “Do they see anything special in us?”

“That I can’t say,” the man replied. “However, they may try to hone certain skills you all have, in ways that they can exploit, later on.”

I gulped. “I’d much rather be back at Kadic, in Lyoko HQ.”

He nodded, reassuringly. “I’d love to bring you back there, myself. And it’s wonderful to hear that Principal Delmas had that extra room built; it was well-deserved. But for the time being, I’ll do everything I can to make sure the other scientists don’t torture you. You’re human beings, not bipedal guinea pigs.”

“I know, but I’m still scared. What happened to our beloved teachers? One of them—” my breath caught in my throat.

Jeb quickly waved his hands in front of his chest. “Nothing fatal, I assure you. They only allow the Erasers to use sedatives. I’m sure every single person who resisted, or tried to defend you, is waking up right now like they just woke up from a terrible nightmare.”

Oh, was _that_ a relief! I could barely contain myself! “You don’t—You don’t know how…strengthened this makes me… We—we almost thought that Jim…”

I could tell everyone else was relieved as well.

“See, Cat Girl?! What did I tell you? Jim’s tough as nails. And you spent all day worrying,” Odd grinned.

“I couldn’t help it, _Novio_! I mean, you heard that thud, too!” I shot back, still in the euphoria that Jim’s still alive.

“But he’s made thuds like that plenty of times before, and we never thought he was dead, then!” Odd countered.

“That’s because we knew he’d get back up. But—”

“He got back up, just fine, this time, too,” Jeb added, smiling warmly. “I’ve seen how strong and resilient of a gym teacher he is. I believe he had a saying: ‘It'll take more than that to take down your ol’ pal Jim!’”

“ _Jimbo_ ,” _mi novio_ corrected, cackling.

I couldn’t help but break down laughing, either. That Odd… he always knew how to get just about anyone to laugh, especially me.

“At least he’s still alive,” Jeremie commented, beaming from ear to ear.

Sister had a similar grin on her face. “Ooh, that makes me so glad! I can’t wait to see him again!”

“I would love to hug him,” I admitted. “I think that the emotional distress when Jim went down also broke my mood. I didn’t mean to sound murderous, guys.”

There was a collective head-shaking, and calls of “no,” “nah,” and “what are you talking about?” all throughout the room.

“You did nothing wrong, Sweetie,” Jeb reassured. “I can understand your feeling as though you lost a teacher you were quite fond of. It happens.”

“Plus, I don’t think I could even _afford_ a black mamba.” I shook my own head. “Let alone set one loose.”

“And besides,” Ulrich jumped in, “you saw what those Erasers did to us, when they were trying to get us in and out of that sedan. A black mamba wouldn’t have been much better.”

“I don’t know what its venom would do to an Eraser in the first place. It’s a stupid plan,” I sighed, looking at my former first roommate. “I’m sorry that I scared you all over the place.”

“You were just trying to protect me,” she replied, giving me one of her calming, disarming smiles. “You don’t need to apologize for that.”

“I still hate Reilly.” Raising my right wrist, I frowned. “Look at this thing. And he thinks I would bite _him_?! Even when things got hairy, I never bit anyone.”

“You’re also not a seven-year-old,” Odd quipped. “You know what _is_ food, and what isn’t.”

“You’re right, but even when I was angry, I still didn’t sink my teeth into XANA’s attack of the week,” I shook my head again.

“You didn’t need to,” Ulrich added. “You could hold your own with me, Yumi, Odd, or anyone else.”

Jeb tried to calm me down, again. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. Just relax. When I get another scientist assigned to you, I’ll have them remove that shunt. I can’t possibly see why Reilly would need that, aside from the problem you mentioned, which you clearly aren’t having, regardless of what he thinks.”

“Thanks, Jeb. I really hate having it in. It kept me awake anytime I rolled to my right side and pressed on it,” I told him. “If he thinks that that would break my spirits, he won somewhere.”

“But you don’t have to let him win completely,” Sister tried to comfort me. “Just show him that you don’t care about what he did to your arm. That’ll show him!”

“True.”

“And if one of us gets him after you get another whitecoat,” Yumi added, “we’ll be sure to show him exactly how that made you feel.”

Even though Hunter bore a look of concern, I could hear one of his thoughts, that told me exactly what he was feeling. _I sure hope it isn’t me._

“Trust me, Hunter. I wouldn’t wish him on XANA,” I shook.

He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck, almost as if he nearly forgot I could do that. “That’s a relief. I’d probably feel the… same way you did…”

“I’d rather sic XANA on him, but I know that he doesn’t like to be controlled by anyone,” I whimpered. “I just wanna go back.”

“They’ll be back, don’t worry,” Jeb nodded, winking at me. He then looked at the watch on his arm. “And it looks like it might soon be time for your second set of tests. I’ll go push harder to make sure they change the scientists around and keep an eye on things.”

Whatever happy thoughts I had were soon completely trampled, under the upcoming threat of more tests. Just what we didn’t need, me especially. I was sure Jeb meant well, but I couldn’t help but see that as a terrible way to segue from something good, into something bad. And if these tests were anything like the ones I had before, there might not be very much of me left to take back to our room. And what about the others? Their tests seemed easier than mine, but were they, really? Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, William, Patrick, and even Kaitlyn had better stamina than I did. They could stand up to things like obstacle course training, swimming laps, and even target practice. They’d probably tackle something like a constantly-changing maze like it was nothing. So why did the whitecoats feel the need to push me even farther? For crying out loud, I’m not Angel! I don’t even have nearly as many psychic powers as she does!

To my surprise, I wasn’t subjected to an ever-rotating maze. Instead, I was led into a room similar to a police gun test. A revolver sat in the stall before me. I smirked slightly. _Finally, something that suits my style._ I put on the noise-cancelling cordless headphones, the world growing deaf around me, and the safety goggles provided.

A light above me spun around, bathing the room in orange at intervals. Picking up the gun, I aimed, firing at a target in front of me, slightly wincing at the recoil from the shunt in my arm. The target exploded with a direct hit to the center. The whitecoats seemed unfazed, but I could tell they were quite amazed.

Soon, I shot through three magazines of bullets, and several multi-shaped targets. To keep myself level, I straightened my spine. Lyoko had trained me well, but I knew how to fire guns outside the realm of the virtual.

Eventually, my right hand started to shake, my eyes glazing slightly over. Even though it was fun to get rid of round after round of targets, I felt my body getting more and more exhausted.

It was then that the whitecoats took the gun away from me and undid my protective gear. “Looks like you’re a real Annie Oakley,” one whistled, impressed.

“One hundred five targets destroyed out of one hundred seven. She’s got natural aiming skills when it comes to guns,” the woman who assigned me to the psycho grinned.

“Take her to her room. Let her rest for the remainder of the evening,” Jeb’s voice entered my ears. “I’d say she’s earned it.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right, Jeb,” the female whitecoat admitted. “I’ll take her back, myself.”

It wasn’t long before I was back in the big room, resting on my bed. That was the best test ever. However, the others had yet to return, forcing me to withhold my excitement until they did. To occupy myself, I kept myself upbeat by singing a song. “Another night in any town, you can hear the thunder of their cry! Ahead of their time, they wonder why... In the shadows of a golden age, a generation waits for dawn. Brave carry on, bold and the strong…”

I found this song quite fitting for the situation my friends and I were in. We were stuck in a laboratory, being treated somewhat better than guinea pigs, yet we all had hope. We had hope that this wasn’t where we were going to stay. We knew that, someday, we were going to be set free. Whether by Max and her flock, Jeb or by some stroke of luck, someone from Kadic Academy, we were going to get out of here. Sometimes I felt like it was a shot in the dark. I would have moments where I would forget the voice in my head, that kept telling me it would never happen, and that I would be stuck here for the rest of my life, was wrong. But my friends were always there to reassure me. To cheer me up. To show me that no matter what crazy things happened, they were right behind me. They all had my back. I was so blessed to have such amazing friends as them, and I even hoped Hunter would turn out to be the same way, as well. This was for them. We would all pull through. And this was the proof.

“You sing beautifully…” A new voice entered my ears. I opened my eyes and whirled around.

An Eraser, not the same as the one who tried to carry me in a fireman’s hold, had entered the room. My heart raced in panic, and I couldn’t stop myself from gulping.

Jeb soon walked in, and as his eyes landed on the Eraser, he quickly realized who he was; his son. “Ari?”

I couldn’t believe my ears! Did he just say…?! “B-b-b-b-b-but… H-he—he…! T-the battle in G-Germany! T-the expiration date…!” I could feel my lungs tensing up incredibly quickly. What is he doing here?! He’s supposed to be dead!! “Wh-what?!” _Yumi… This is crazy… But Ari’s here…_

As I tried to form a coherent sentence, completely flabbergasted by who was standing in front of me, Jeb quickly rushed to my side and began to give me a soothing back rub.

“Just lay back, and close your eyes,” he soothed. “Just relax. We’ll take care of this after you’ve calmed down.”

I obeyed the first two orders, being close to hyperventilating, but his words reminded me of Yolanda’s soothing coos when this happened during the assembly. In my haze, I almost mistook him for Franz Schaeffer, feeling his fatherly essence emanating toward me.

“There, there…” Jeb continued, his back rub slowly helping me to relax. “Everything’s just fine. You’re going to be okay.”

The second to last sentence threatened to undo everything he was trying to do. Just those three words were like a trigger. Hearing them echo in my mind before everything went blank, and getting placed on that chopper… why didn’t he know that?! And besides, everything was _not_ fine! I knew he was trying to get me to calm down, but how could everything be okay, when his _dead son_ was standing in the room with us, and not as a ghost, either?!

“B-but that battle in Germany—his expiration date kicked in… There was a burial for him…” This was insane, even if my eyes were closed. “How d-do I know he’s not an M-Geek… or-or… A Flyboy…?! Is this all a dream?”

Jeb wasn’t answering any of my questions, yet. Instead, he kept softly and soothingly rubbing, while cooing to me. “I’ll tell you everything, once you’ve calmed down. If you keep going like this, you’re going to have a meltdown. I just want you to relax. Don’t think about those things, right now. Just push them out of your mind.”

Slowly his words started to work within me. On the side of my right wrist, I felt my pulse begin to slow down, bit by bit, and a feeling of calmness slowly began to overtake me.

“There… Sh… You’re okay,” Max’s and Ari’s father soothed. “You don’t have to worry. Just relax.”

All I could feel was his soothing back rub as if it was lowering the tension within my body step by step until I almost felt like I was going to fall asleep.

Jeb smiled. “Do you feel better?”

I nodded, trying not to resist relaxing. He had the hands of a masseuse. I couldn’t help but wonder how many other cases needed such gentle, loving care, besides his two children.

“That’s good,” Jeb continued, still speaking in a calm voice as he continued rubbing, probably to stop me from freaking out when he did explain everything. “Now, let me explain, but I don’t want to push you into a meltdown.”

“Okay…” For the best, I kept my eyes closed.

“Ari did not actually die in battle, in Germany,” he began. “It was a deliberate plot. The expiration date was staged, in order to fool Omega into believing he had dropped dead; it allowed him to become involved in a sneak attack, a short time later, which ended with the German Director’s murder.”

 _Huh, Yumi’s conspiracy theory “what-if” had been true after all._ “So, he’s your flesh and blood son, whose mom… your former wife… died?”

“Exactly, Cassidy, exactly…” he soothed.

I opened my eyes, still in a small state, but quite relaxed. “It’s great to um… meet you, Ari… A-Are you a part of Jeb’s efforts to rescue us?”

He nodded. “He told me all about it last night, Cassidy. If we can’t get your scientist changed fast enough, I will be your bodyguard. Reilly won’t touch you because he can’t touch me.”

“That would save me a lot, Ari. I feel so angry around him, and I just want to…”

“I hear you.” He nodded. “It’s like my father said, if you get alone in a room with him, bite him on both of his wrists.”

“He hit someone the last time it happened. I don’t want to get bruised.” I looked into his eyes.

“Yeah... maybe that wouldn’t work,” he lamented.

Suddenly, at that moment, Hunter staggered back into the room. He looked quite frazzled, and nearly every inch of his body twitched as he slowly made his way toward his bed. This certainly didn’t help my emotions any; what had they done to him?! Whatever it was, I could tell he was probably moments from having a meltdown, too. My heart began to beat more frequently, as I found breathing slightly harder and harder, once more.

“Markson!” Jeb yelled, moments before he slowed down his soft, soothing rub of my back.

Moments later, a female whitecoat walked into the room. “Yes, Jeb.”

“Hunter Moebius is having an overload. Could you help him calm down?” He pointed to the boy in question, who had dropped to his knees by his hospital bed, still twitching.

“I’ll get right on it,” Markson replied, running over to Hunter. She immediately helped him up onto his hospital bed and began softly and slowly rubbing his back, as well.

My body started twitching. It was as if I could feel Hunter’s feelings of overloading coursing throughout my entire being. If this was what his second set of tests were like, how much worse could Yumi’s, Ulrich’s, Odd’s, or even Aelita’s be?

“Relax, my dear,” Jeb went back to soothing me, softly and slowly rubbing from my neck, to just above my waist. “Just close your eyes and calm down.”

I slowly closed my eyes, whimpering. “W-What’s h-happening t-to me?”

“It seems you’re feeling what Hunter’s feeling,” Jeb replied, his voice unchanging. “Perhaps this is another ability of yours that the monster might have awakened?”

“I d-don’t know!! W-wh-why i-is it a-affecting me s-so m-much?!” I squealed, trying to relax.

The next thing I knew, I felt Jeb gently lift me up, and wrap his arms around me, embracing me in a warm hug, while his hands continued to softly and slowly caress my back. “Your body might not be used to it, just yet. We’re trying to calm Hunter down, as well. If he calms down, it might calm you, as well.”

“I d-don’t know h-how th-this is happening…” I shivered.

“You might be discovering many new abilities, or they may have already been inside you, but dormant, up until you got here.”

“H-help… me… I c-can’t control it…” I felt tears welling in my eyes.

“Shhh… we will don’t worry.” His voice became very gentle and soothing, as he continued his soft, gentle caress of my back.

I really tried to relax, but I couldn’t. No matter how soft, soothing and gentle Jeb’s back rub was, it wasn’t working. And then, to make matters worse, I heard Hunter suddenly burst into tears, nearby. Whatever they did to him, it really screwed him up in a bad way. There was no way I could hold my own tears back, now.

I sobbed into Jeb’s chest, my own body shaking. Why couldn’t I be in control of my own emotions?! I used to have it so perfectly. My moods were my own, even if I never experienced a bad day.

Jeb continued to slowly and softly caress my back, from the back of my neck, down to just above my waist, while cooing softly into my ear, shushing me gently as if I were a small child. “Just stay calm… it’s okay…”

I tried, but my body disobeyed. My breathing turned ragged, as though they made me run seventy laps instead of gun practice. What was with me?! I met Hunter yesterday. How am I feeling his emotions?!

This was when Jeb decided on a better plan for helping me relax, even though I knew I wasn’t going to like it. He reached into the pocket on his lab coat and pulled out a syringe. His eyes moved to the shunt in my right arm, as he began to figure out the best way to give it to me.

“Hey, Cassidy?” he cooed, still softly rubbing my back with his other hand.

I nodded, my being still against me.

“Why don’t I help you fall asleep? That’ll help you relax until Hunter stops crying, and we can figure out why you keep feeling his emotions.”

I didn’t like it, but what choice did I have? I felt like my emotions were going to kill me, and I didn’t want them to do that to my friends. I gritted my teeth and tried to speak. “G-go a-ahead…”

“Okay. This won’t hurt you at all, trust me.” He brought the syringe over to the shunt, and slowly emptied its contents into it. “Now I just want you to relax, okay? It’ll all be over, soon.”

Slowly, I began to relax, feeling the fire in my veins slowly take out my consciousness, until I calmed down completely, my eyes closing. At once, my entire being became steady, once more.

A couple hours later, I slowly opened my eyes, feeling a complete sense of calmness surrounding me. As my vision slowly began to focus, I could make out what looked like nearly all of my friends, gathered around my bed, with looks of concern on their faces. As I started to move, I could barely make out a few of their faces slowly growing smiles.

“H-hi, guys…” I muttered, still feeling woozy from the meltdown.

“They told us what happened, about you and Hunter,” Yumi commented. “Are you okay?”

“A bit dizzy from the meltdown… It was so fierce… I never felt so much… not since my sister had been crying so long and I broke afterward, unable to control it. Mom helped us get calmed down… I don’t know what—”

“Easy…” William cautioned. “You ought to relax, Cass. Don’t do anything too crazy right away.”

“Right…” I took a deep breath, relaxing into the bed.

“You need to get your strength back, Cat Girl,” Odd added.

“I know we’re not at Kadic, but I think that’s enough adventure for one day,” I whispered.

“After that one,” Aelita agreed, “you might be good for the whole week. Hunter, too.”

“Is he okay?” I asked.

“He was asleep, too, when we came in,” Yumi replied, turning so I could see him lying face-down on his bed. “They didn’t tell me if they knocked him out, or if he knocked himself out.”

“It’s so strange. I barely know him…”

“Maybe it’s like you and Princess,” Odd suggested. “You didn’t know her, but you were vision-sharing with her, and things like that.”

“After a while with her, I guess this could be a subset that I never knew was going on with me,” I lamented. “I felt like my body was losing control. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Do you think, maybe he has some sort of power over you? That maybe he can control you, in some way?” Ulrich inquired.

“Hunter? No… He—” I shook my head. “It’s just a coincidence. Besides, I think I need to rest.”

“Good idea,” Yumi agreed. “I think we all should just get a good night’s sleep. The both of you will probably feel a lot better in the morning.”

“True. Odd? Would you like to stay with me?” I felt miserable and alone without my stuffed animals, and it was a wonder that I slept well two nights in a row that way. At least with Odd, I could be sure I’d get a good night’s sleep, even if I would have managed for a third night without him. There wasn’t any need to take that chance.

“Say no more, Cat Girl!” he grinned, climbing up onto my bed. “I’d love to!”

I smiled, letting him wrap his arms around me and lay his head on my chest. He was soon joined by Kiwi, who jumped up onto the bed next to him.

“Thanks, Kiwi,” we chorused.

With Odd and I safely tucked in, Yumi and Ulrich climbed up onto their beds, which they had placed next to each other, before laying down. They even slowly stretched out their arms, gently touching their fingers together, like they had when we were in the hospital.

Aelita and Jeremie made their way over to their respective beds, which were also placed conveniently, and climbed in, facing each other.

William, Patrick, and Kaitlyn were next, climbing into each of their beds, one by one.

And before she got into her bed, I felt Sister gently pull the covers over Odd and I, before I heard her footsteps move over toward Hunter’s bed, assuming she did the same for him, as well. With the three of us tucked in, she crawled into her own bed, settling down for the night.

 


	7. A Week Passes...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do own our OC’s.

It took us a week, but Hunter and I got back on our feet. Through a few tests, it turned out that I had _not_ broken down due to a new power within me; instead, the stress that he was feeling, that I soon mysteriously felt as well, had happened as a result of empathy—admittedly, I melted down because I didn’t want him to go through it alone. While Yumi and Odd had been relieved that I wasn’t turning into an empath, Hunter smiled in gratitude.

No matter how homesick we were feeling, we grew accustomed to the tests given to us by the whitecoats. My legs strengthened, even though I was already quite steady on my feet.

 The downside was that I still had Reilly assigned to me until the next Tuesday. Jeb, however, promised that Ari would be present, so I wouldn’t be hurt. He stood guard around me while the least tedious of tests were performed; yet, when he demanded Reilly remove the plastic shunt in my arm, which I wasn’t even accustomed to in the first place, he refused.

“You’re kidding!” Odd and Jeremie chorused when I told them the news.

I shook my head. “Ugh… I hate this thing, and I’m afraid of taking it out myself.”

Hunter grimaced. “Yeah, that might not be a good idea. Hopefully whoever your next whitecoat will be, they’ll take it right out. I hope you get a good one, like mine.”

“No kidding, Hunter,” I sighed. “I wish I had Georgina as my whitecoat, too.”

“Maybe Jeb could get her assigned to both of us?” he shrugged his shoulders. “Or get you one that’s just as good? One who won’t put shunts into any part of your body?”

“You’ll have that removed soon,” Yumi soothed. “Just don’t think about it.”

“I hope so, Yumi. I can’t believe that this had only been implemented to me a week ago. I’d rather have my heart-shaped pendant over this,” I smiled. “At least it would be easier.”

“I’d love to give it to you.” Yumi beamed as well.

“I know you do. I just can’t believe that we’re here. It’s not very exciting, especially since we’re in California, and Kadic’s in Sceaux. And we should be there, and not here.”

“Or,” Odd suggested, slowly gaining a grin, “we could bring Kadic over here, and that way, instead of being there, we’d be here, while still being there!”

I tilted my head to the side, like the time he said a pun that I never heard before in Sector Five. “Uh…” _Did Jeremie teach him quantum physics again?_

Einstein, for his part, also looked quite confused. “Odd, could you at least _try_ to make sense? There’s absolutely no way that we could transplant Kadic Academy from Sceaux, France, all the way to us here in Death Valley, California, for a variety of reasons; not the least part being that we don’t have any means of _getting_ it here! The Supercomputer’s the only means I can think of, and it’s back there, too, and we don’t possess any means of faster-than-light, or interstellar travel, that would allow us to get there, undetected!”

“And I would hate to fly in a chopper again,” I moaned, heart about to race from the panic.

It was as if Yumi sensed this, as I soon felt her softly rub my back. “We understand. Even if we do find a way out of here, with or without Ari’s and Jeb’s help, we’re definitely not going to let anyone ride in another chopper, again.”

“I still don’t get how Ulrich wasn’t affected by all that flying,” Aelita jumped in.

Ulrich raised an eyebrow, shrugging. “Simple; like we tried to do with Cassidy, I just pretended we were on the ground. The floor was stable enough.”

“Pretending that we were on the ground didn’t work for me, remember?” I asked calmly, not even half-mad.

“Yeah, but we calmed you down, anyway,” Sam added, grinning. “So it doesn’t matter how we did it; we just did it.”

Nodding, I blinked at my friends. “Reilly even made note of my ‘mischief’ or ‘misbehavior’ in Paris.”

“Only because we tried to escape, and didn’t come _peacefully,_ ” Yumi rolled her eyes, looking like she was about to laugh.

“And I was the only one who was _absent_ to the rest of the _staff_ ,” I giggled.

“Oh, that’s a _real_ good one!” Odd quipped.

William nodded in agreement. “At the rate things are going, I think the only thing they’ll soon find absent from all of us, is our sanity.”

“I just don’t know what they want to do to us, other than these tests—I still love the gun tests. They adore me there. I blew three hundred out of three hundred one targets the last time,” I smiled, before it fell. “Aside from that one time, I can’t even get a reading from them still.”

“You got a near-perfect score in the shooting range?!” Jeremie’s eyes widened, with an excited look popping up not long after.

“I told you guys my dad gave me a gun when I was younger, right? He used the same compliment when he took me to a live shooting range and I shot up so many targets he made. It was so much fun—I was eleven back then, at least two years before I got enrolled in Kadic,” I smiled.

William’s jaw dropped to the floor. He was nearly flabbergasted.

“Hey, Ex-y! Your uncle showed you how to disarm bombs, I got to shoot with a gun. Simple as all that,” I giggled at his expression.

“At least both of your relatives taught you something,” Ulrich commented, with a laugh.

Aelita giggled, grinning. “As well as my own.”

“And you’re a DJ to boot,” I praised.

She closed her eyes, blushing, yet still smiling.

“And what about you, Cat Girl?” Odd pointed out, a mischievous smile taking over his face. “You think we’ve forgotten about the other famous DJ we know? Or did that Moody Blues song you and Princess sang cancel that out?”

I felt my own cheeks heat up. “B-but she’s—I mean…” I still hated bragging about myself. Even if my friends put me up to it, I always liked to step back, and let someone else have the spotlight. I still remembered that awful bet that Ulrich and Odd made.

 “Oh, come on, dear sister. You know that you have talent, too,” Sister smiled. “Even _I_ was mystified by your performance of that song. Especially that ghostly angelic note Aelita did to amplify the whole thing… And you did so beautifully…”

I gulped, managing a small smile. “I just sing the songs…”

“C’mon!” Jeremie interjected. “You can’t tell me that you don’t put any ability into your performances, Cassidy! Have you ever listened to yourself?”

“Just think, Cat Girl. You’re awesome, too,” my wildcard nudged me gently. “Why would you want to hide it?”

“I don’t like to blow my own horn, Jeremie and Odd,” I giggled.

Yumi nodded. “You’re certainly more modest than somebody _else_ in this room, that’s for sure. But there’s a difference between humility and narcissism.”

“I just worry that too much bragging would cause negative consequences,” I shivered. “Sure, I used to talk about my powers a lot when we started out, but realizing that I was helpless to defy Aelita’s fate, I swore I wouldn’t talk about it unless something else was going on—before I clammed up about my nightmares.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Cassidy,” Jeremie reassured me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “If negative consequences were going to happen whenever someone bragged, we’d have put a strip of masking tape over Odd’s mouth, long before now.”

“Hey!” Odd shouted defensively. “A guy’s gotta eat sometime!”

Ulrich chuckled. “Yeah, you’d be like that guy we saw on TV the last time we lounged in the rec room.”

“That guy was creepy.”

As Aelita shivered, I shook my head to clear it of the image. “Those eyes tried to pierce my soul!”

“He _was_ creepy,” Yumi agreed, giving my back a soft, soothing rub.

Seeing how everyone was reacting to that memory, Jeremie raised his hands up to chest level. “I think that’s enough talk about that guy for one day. Why don’t we… talk about Kiwi or something else?”

“Yeah. Speaking of dogs, Angel has one, too. His name is Total, a black talking Scottie with wings,” I brought up, then looked at Kiwi. “He’s not out to steal your lady friend, little diggity dog. He already has one of his own.”

Odd’s eyes immediately widened. “Huh?! Total can _talk_?! And-and-and _fly_?!”

Yumi and I nodded, identical smiles upon our faces.

“Wow!” his eyes lit up. “That’s fantastic! I just gotta keep training my own little diggity-dog, and soon he’ll be able to talk to more than just Cat Girl!”

“A talking dog…” Hunter’s eyes darted toward the ceiling, like he was deep in thought. “I wonder what Kiwi would talk about? And I wonder what he would sound like… anything like Ulrich, maybe?”

“I don’t know. Besides, I love his little mind conversations with me, Odd, honey,” I smiled. “He has a wide vocabulary range when he wants to use it. He even knows what a nonagenarian is. Even I didn’t know at first.”

“I wonder where he learned all that?” Aelita cocked an eyebrow.

“Maybe Odd was right when he told us that Kiwi’s just special,” I shrugged.

Nearby, Kiwi just slept peacefully atop Odd’s bed, completely oblivious to everything we were talking about.

Giggling, I looked at the door, calming myself down. “I wonder if the teachers are doing a widespread search for us. I mean, it’s been a week. They must be worried sick about us.”

“Oh, there’s no doubt about that, I’m sure.” Jeremie pushed his glasses upon the ridge of his nose. “The real question is, how long before they realize we were smuggled out of the country?”

“Wait!” Aelita whispered, eyes widening. “The Erasers revealed that they have clearance from their boss here to Jim! Maybe there’s a chance he’ll remember!”

That fact immediately hit me over the head. She was right! “I didn’t think about it that way. But then again, my mind _was_ a bundle of nerves.”

“We were all quite tense,” Jeremie reminded me. “We were trying to escape from the Erasers, so that’s all we were concentrating on.”

“So, if Jim remembers, then maybe we _can_ be saved,” I blinked, a smile forming upon my face. “Aelita, you’re—” I stopped myself, remembering what had happened the _last_ time I said that. The last thing I needed was a team of Erasers barging in, and forcefully pulling us out of our room, for whatever reason.

“Cassidy?” Yumi asked in concern. “You can say it. The Erasers aren’t going to barrel in, and take us someplace we don’t want to go.”

“Yeah,” Kaitlyn agreed.

“Okay…” I took a deep breath. “...Aelita, you’re a genius.”

Aelita grinned, giggling modestly as a slight blush overtook her cheeks. But that was it; just like the others had suggested, nothing else happened. The door wasn’t knocked down. Erasers didn’t pop out of the wood—er, stone… work. We weren’t suddenly transported to the middle of Tanzania. Everything stayed absolutely the same as it was, before I said that.

“See?” Sam smiled. “You were worrying for nothing.”

“I guess I was still worried about tempting fate,” I muttered sheepishly.

“It was just a matter of chance,” Yumi remarked, placing her hands upon my shoulders. “You could’ve said anything else, and the Erasers still would have come after us. They still would have heard us, anyway.”

“Like if one of us snapped a twig. I know that’s cliché, but it’s the first one I thought of,” I muttered.

“Exactly what I mean,” Yumi nodded, grinning.

“We don’t need to worry too much,” Aelita reassured.

That was definitely relieving to hear. I’m usually one to assume that, if something special happens the first time I do something, it’s probably going to happen the next time, and the time after that. Hopefully this was the start of something better, where I didn’t have to worry about the same thing happening the same time I do something. That would be really nice.

“I am glad that the tests are going our way, at least,” I smiled.

“That’s for sure,” Ulrich agreed.

Almost as if on cue, the door opened, revealing Georgina Markson. Normally we expected her to walk over to Hunter, but surprisingly, she came to me, instead. I could just about guess what Hunter’s reaction to that was going to be.

“Cassidy, could you come with me for a moment?” she calmly asked, with a calm smile on her face to match.

“O-of course, Ma’am,” I looked into her soothing blue eyes, hopping off my bed.

Following her out of the big room, she led me down a short hallway, and into the examination room.

“Jeb finally got Reilly unassigned to you. I don’t know what Mandy thought when she pointed him to you last week, but you and Hunter will be mine from now on. Now I understand that you really want that shunt removed,” Georgina nodded.

I nodded. “It has been a literal thorn in my arm.”

She immediately went to work. The entire time, she kept me calm and relaxed, and worked with a very gentle touch. The next thing I knew, she had taken it out, and held it in her other hand for me to see.

“Reilly really had a bad opinion of you, didn’t he?” she asked, pressing on the side of my right wrist with a cotton ball. “I’ve never seen him do this to any of his subjects, before.”

“I guess he had ‘learned’ from Angel,” I blinked. “He must’ve thought that since I was so ‘bad’ when being smuggled to here, he didn’t want to take any chances in case I would bite.”

Georgina rolled her eyes, an annoyed look forming on her face. “ _Right_ , because to him, everyone is expected to just sit back, and let themselves be abducted. He’s always felt like that. He thinks coming here is supposedly a ‘privilege,’ and that everyone should be proud to have an Eraser put them into a sedan.”

“I was more afraid of the chopper.”

The look of annoyance became concern. “Are you afraid of heights, or afraid of flying?”

“Both, but I sucked up my heights fear for a time, and I really hate flying. Bad experience with a fighter jet.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Her voice was filled with regret, as she grimaced. “And I’m sorry if the chopper ride made you feel even worse than you had been, before we kidnapped you.”

“It’s okay. What’s done is done. But if I ever get back to Kadic, I hope I could go by boat,” I blushed.

“I could see about arranging that,” she replied, as she gently wrapped a bandage around the wound. “I’m sure Jeb would help me.”

I then felt her soothingly rub my back, her tone turning comforting. “And when you get out of here, you should be able to take any method of transport you want to, provided it’s been invented in this country already.”

In no time at all, I returned to the big room. Yumi was the first one to see me, and I could tell she looked quite concerned, before she looked me over. Her concern turned into happiness once she found the shunt was gone.

I grinned. “Turns out they finally assigned me to a better whitecoat.”

“That’s great, Cassidy!” Even her voice sounded happy. “So they gave you Hunter’s, now?”

“Apparently so. You were right about her. She’s very soothing.” I turned to Hunter.

He nodded, smiling calmly. “She definitely is. You’ll like her a lot. But now I wonder if she’s going to be assigned to both of us, or if they assigned me a new one?”

“She says that we’re both going to her,” I announced. “You still have her.”

His smile increased when I told him that. “That’s great! And a relief. I was afraid they were gonna give me somebody worse.”

“Nope. You and I will be with her,” I smiled.

“Now we all have kind whitecoats taking care of us!” Odd commented. “That should make things a lot easier!”

“Yeah, except Jeremie’s is a little rough,” I pointed out.

Jeremie grimaced a little. “He’s…not too bad. He just doesn’t have the softest touch, is all. Other than that, he’s acceptable. But he’s definitely not as gentle as yours and Hunter’s.”

“Jeremie, if he’s bothering you so much…” Aelita began.

He turned to look at her, cutting her off. “...I’ll tell Jeb, and ask him if he can be replaced. But I don’t know how many others are as kind and gentle as Georgina Markson. And like I said, other than that one bit, he’s fine.”

“That’s true,” Yumi nodded, “but we like to keep an eye on things. We’re still miles from Kadic.”

“Yumi’s right,” Ulrich agreed. “And if we have to stay here for a long time, who says we can’t make the most of it?”

“It’ll be like a new adventure,” Odd agreed.

“I hardly call being kidnapped an adventure, Odd,” Sam replied.

Hunter let out a slight chuckle, one that sounded more bitter than humorous, as he shook his head. “Yeah, really… unless they were trying to do their own version of one of those reality shows on TV…”

That’s almost what it sounded like, to me. Getting randomly abducted from a French boarding school, to be taken back to the United States, except to California, rather than Illinois or Nebraska, wasn’t exactly what I would call an “adventure.” Besides, from what Hunter described, that about hit the nail on the head. I wonder where he came from, when the Erasers found him? “I’d have to agree with Sam and Hunter, Odd.”

“Oh, alright,” Odd waved his hand dismissively. “But at least you’re back in the United States, even if it’s not exactly Illinois or Nebraska, Cat Girl.”

“I’m in unfamiliar ground. California and New Mexico are states that I never visited before all this came onto me—my grandparents say that I have been to New Mex, but I must’ve been a baby when that happened. Being in the School, too, is not exactly where I would like to be at any time at all,” I blushed.

“Well, neither have we,” Odd wasn’t about to back down, “unless Hunter’s secretly been near here, and hasn’t told any of us!”

He shook his head. “Nah… I’ve seen most of Maryland, including Baltimore, and the farthest I’ve ever gone is West Virginia. Never seen the West Coast before now.”

“Join the purple jacket club,” I muttered. “Aside from moving to Kadic, I never visited either coast. I was more landlocked than seafaring.”

“Interesting,” he remarked. “So we have a lot more in common than I thought. Oh, and do those jackets come in green, by any chance?”

“I think they’re expanding their color options. I was just going off of what Ulrich told Odd sarcastically,” I giggled.

“Uh—wha-wha?” Ulrich blinked, taking a step backward. “I-I mean, they, uh… well, sure. I… I-I mean, I… I think…”

“It’s okay, Ulrich. We were just playing around,” I smiled.

He rubbed the back of his head. “Right… I… I knew that.”

The room became uncomfortably quiet for a few seconds after that, as if nobody was sure what to talk about next. That was when the door opened once more, revealing Jeb.

“Alright, everyone,” he began. “Follow me. I’m gonna take you to your next test, and this one will have all of you working together.”

“What kind of test is it?” Sister was curious.

“You’ll probably find it’s a lot like missions to Lyoko,” Jeb replied with a grin.

“Alright!” Odd cheered.

“Been a little while since we all went and enjoyed a group work test,” Kaitlyn agreed.

And with that, Jeb led us all out of the big room, down a long hallway, and into another room. I could tell Odd and Kaitlyn were quite excited about the test itself. I started to wonder if it was just well-hidden nervousness.

It turned out to be just like _mi novio_ expected it to be: a piece of cake. Just like he did when we fought against XANA, Jeremie stayed behind and acted as tactician, giving each of us tasks to complete. It only took Hunter a few tries to catch on, and once he did, he was able to pull off each task that Einstein gave him quite well. They even let us pretend to use weapons, so it almost was, like Jeb said, a mission to Lyoko. Why couldn’t they give us more tests like this?

Once the test was over, most of us were a bit tired out afterward, but I could tell a few of us really enjoyed that. After we got back to the big room, we all had a meal and went to bed, except for me. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding, which stopped me from falling asleep right away. That test was too easy, in my opinion. There was something just off about it. I don’t want to think they tailored it specifically to us, but I could just feel something strange, the entire time. I couldn’t put a finger on it; either there were too few monsters, or almost no strong monsters, like MegaTanks and Krabes, or even memory stealing jellyfish, or did the plots not seem complex enough? It was like there was some sort of secret message… and I wish I knew what it was.

Little did I know that I was going to find out. And it was exactly what I had feared, going by the first book in the series.


	8. Preparations

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our OC’s and the plot.**

Once I finally got to sleep, the next morning seemed to come a lot quicker than I expected. Except for Yumi and I, everyone else woke up refreshed, and curious about what the day would bring. Like I mentioned before, we had all gotten quite accustomed to having tests done on us, so the fear and mystery had all but worn off. But I could tell that there was something in the air. Something that Yumi possibly knew about as well, whether she already had the idea in her mind, or the day’s events would force it to the front.

I turned to her, whispering, “Do you smell it, too, Yumi?”

She returned a cautious look. “It’s been a week and a couple days… they must be preparing us for it, or they’re going to start, soon,” she whispered.

I forced the saliva down my throat. “I know I usually put my emotional shield up by this point, but this is making me feel scared. What should we do?”

She looked all around the room, before returning her gaze to me. “First, I think we should lay low. Let’s just wait and see what happens. If they lead us into an operating room, move our beds out with us on them, get us to change our clothes, or anything that involves preparing our bodies, then we should try to distract them, and sneak out, if we can.”

“Yumi, we’ll get caught, and you know it. Remember, Erasers…? And I don’t want the whitecoats to sting our necks for such a reckless plan,” I shuddered, rubbing where it used to hurt.

“Hmm… you’re right.” Yumi nodded, placing her hand over her chin. “But we should do something, even if we just try to hide someplace.”

“Nuh-uh… No way. They would catch our scent and possibly find us. That would probably not end well. Then we would likely wind up back with the failings of plan A. I don’t want to surrender any more than you or I do, but they might see through our plans,” I muttered.

Her expression soon carried frustration. “Then we might just have to wait, and see if Jeb has any ideas for us. If anyone should know when they’re going to operate on us, it should be him.”

“Plus we don’t know if he or Ari got into contact with Max and the rest of the flock, yet,” I nodded. “Sorry if I’m being very negative, Yumi. I—”

I came to a stop as I felt her softly rub my back, her expression softening. “It’s okay. You’re right, though; those Erasers are gonna make it hard for us to try and resist. And they probably already know what we have up our sleeves. So if anything, we’ll just have to try something completely different. Something unexpected.”

My eyes looked into hers. “Like what, Yumi?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know; I’m running out of ideas. Maybe Jeremie might know something.”

“Me, too, and the only ones I’m coming up with are caricatures of when the flock got caught in  _ Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports _ , the first time,” I shook my head. “I don’t know what to do with a zebra, a bunch of bubbles, and beef jerky.”

She merely let out a grunt through her gritted teeth. It looked as though we might have to play this one by ear, the thought of which was quite scary.

“Sorry, bad time for a joke, I know,” I blushed, a sheepish grin forming on my face.

“It’s okay,” Yumi nodded. “Let’s just hope they don’t try anything like that today, and wait and see what happens. Maybe that’s all we can do.”

“This is scary. It makes me wish we were back at Kadic in Lyoko HQ, in a sugar coma from the cake,” I muttered.

She nodded, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a comforting hug. “We’ll be back there, soon. Don’t worry. It might not be right away, but I know we’ll go back.”

“I sure hope so, Yumi.” I rested my head on her shoulder. “We have to think of something.”

“Hopefully we’ll have enough time,” Yumi admitted, as I felt her hands softly and slowly rub my back.

“I do, too.” I let her soft back rub relax me.

A few seconds later, Odd opened his eyes, and stretched his arms. “Ahhh… now  _ that’s _ the best dream I’ve had, since we got here!”

“What was i-it about?” I asked, attempting to sound convincing.

“I dreamed it was raining fries!” he chuckled. “And then a trio of hamburgers showed up, and asked me if I wanted to meet their friend! Turns out, she was a strawberry milkshake!”

That made me chuckle, albeit uneasily.

“Did she have any brothers, or cousins?” Yumi quipped, trying to lighten hers and my mood.

“I couldn’t stay long enough to find out,” Odd replied. “But I did see a hot fudge sundae running around in their backyard.”

“That must’ve been their pet,” I began to laugh a bit half-heartedly.

Odd must have noticed this, as his face fell a slight bit. “Hey, Cat Girl, are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?”

“She’s afraid of what the whitecoats might do to us today,” Yumi explained, still softly and slowly rubbing my back.

“If you’re worried about them giving you a physical,” he guessed, “she’ll probably have Hunter wait in another room.”

“There’s something in the air, Odd. Yumi and I can detect it. Something’s not right,” I blinked.

Raising an eyebrow out of confusion, Odd sniffed the air.

“You’re right!” Odd’s other eyebrow rose, raising my hopes slightly. “I can’t smell any food! It’s like they’ve forgotten it’s breakfast time!”

Before he knew it, I slapped my forehead. That wasn’t what I meant in the first place.

“It’s true!” Odd scratched his head. “I don’t smell anything! Unless they’re just gonna serve us cold, soggy cereal like they did the first time…”

Before I could reply, I heard the soft, gentle yawn of Aelita, who slowly sat upright in her bed, following a stretch. She soon looked over at me, before a look of surprise overtook her face.

“Yumi, Cassidy,” she asked calmly, “is everything okay?”

“Aelita, do you feel there’s something different about today?” I asked, almost two seconds away from giving Odd a glare.

She looked around the room. “I guess… something feels strange… but I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

I smiled, giving a small relieved, self-vindicating laugh. “See, Odd?! Aelita agrees with me!” Maybe  _ mi novio  _ was wrong about female intuition, after all.

“We’ve been getting this strange feeling,” Yumi commented, “like something terrible is going to happen today. Cassidy and I think we know what it is, but we’re not sure. And even then, we don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t think they’re…” Aelita began to look worried, “...going to do anything horrible, do you?”

“We really don’t know, Aelita,” my geisha friend shook her head, “but it sure wouldn’t hurt to keep your eyes open.”

Aelita slowly nodded, her expression unchanging as she clutched the sheets, and her Mister Pück, close to her chest.

Soon, Jeremie was the next to wake up, flinging his arms into the air in a morning stretch. Reaching for his glasses, he glanced around the room, before happening upon Yumi, Odd, and I, noticing the geisha and I looked cautious. “Did I miss something?”

“Jeremie, do you…” Yumi paused slightly, as she gave Einstein her attention, “...does something feel slightly… different to you?”

“Hmm… now that you mention it… there is a slight bit of tension in the air. I can just barely feel it. I don’t know what it could mean, but it is slightly unnerving,” he admitted.

The next one to awaken was Hunter. I glanced over in his direction as he, too, stretched his arms out, before sitting upright and rubbing his eyes. Once he looked over at Yumi, Odd, and I, he raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. 

“Huh? W-what’s going on?” he asked.

“The girls and Einstein are worried about something,” Odd shrugged. “Something about there being something weird in the air. All I can tell is they’re not making breakfast like they normally do.”

“Something in the air?” He started to look all around the room. “W-why? W-what does it feel like…?”

“It…” Yumi began, searching for the right words to say, “It’s like a feeling of… foreboding. It feels like something terrible could happen today, but we’re not sure what.”

I nodded. “Even I feel it increasing.”

A nervous look appeared on Hunter’s face, as he shrugged. “I… hope it’s n-not… anything… s-serious… but it is kinda… s-s-scaring me…”

That was when Ulrich woke up. As he yawned, and sat upright in his bed, I could tell he was thinking the same thing Yumi and I were.

“Does anyone else feel like something weird is gonna happen today?” he inquired, looking over at Jeremie, Odd, Yumi, Aelita, Hunter and I.

Other than Odd, the rest of us raised our hands or fingers, whichever felt comfortable to use.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Ulrich lamented.

One by one, the rest of my friends woke up. William, then Patrick, and Kaitlyn, Sam, Sister, and then finally Kiwi, all slowly opened their eyes, one after the other. A few of them, such as William, Patrick, and Kaitlyn, started to feel the same way Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita, Jeremie, Hunter, and I felt, while Sam and Sister were left confused, just like Odd had been. But the majority vote was that today was going to be quite unnerving. The scary part was, I hoped my geisha friend and I were wrong, especially considering the next part in the first book in the series. The thought of that made every hair on my body stand on end.

At first, nothing out of the ordinary happened. The room stayed the same. My friends chatted amongst themselves, Yumi, Aelita, Jeremie, and I tried to come up with a plan, for if my geisha friend’s and my fears ended up being true, and Odd, when he wasn’t belly-aching about no food, spent most of his time obliviously playing with Kiwi. The rest of us just lied in wait, fearfully.

“Going by the variables, Cassidy, I don’t think zebras, bubbles, and beef jerky would help us in the slightest,” Jeremie reasoned with me.

“That’s what I thought, too,” I agreed. “Plus Odd would probably eat the jerky.”

“That would be funny to watch,” Aelita nearly giggled, before her face fell once more, “but he’s right, Cassidy. We wouldn’t be able to form any kind of plan with those.”

“Thanks for agreeing with me, Aelita,” I smiled. “At least we can all agree on that.”

Yumi nodded. “But that still doesn’t solve our problem. We need to figure out what we can do, if the whitecoats start preparing us for surgery.”

“I know. Plus, I haven’t seen a laundry cart,” I blinked. “There goes plan 116 down the drain.”

“Wait!” Jeremie raised his hand, suddenly. “What about the laundry cart? You think maybe one or more of us can sneak around that way?”

“Or escape that way. But again, never saw one, so we can’t exactly get out of here with that element, Einstein,” I shook my head.

“Rats!” Jeremie lowered his hand. “I was sure we had something, there.”

“So, that’s why Plan 116 is ixed-nay, Jeremie.” I sighed. “Hm… It’s obvious that we can’t use the vents again. The thing is too high, and they’d find us in no time.”

“And since we don’t have a map, we could end up getting lost,” Aelita pointed out.

“It’s not going to be as simple as our original escape plan. So Plan A—originally Plan 1—won’t work,” I pouted.

Jeremie folded his arms. “I didn’t think I’d say this, but I’m seriously starting to consider having you tie my laptop to my back, Aelita. That way I can’t ever lose it, unless someone takes it away from me.”

“Hey! That was my plan,” I growled, ticked that he would consider taking credit for a plan I had. “Plus, your laptop would fall off and break if we tried rope. That’s why I considered either Velcro or duct tape.”

His eyes widened, suddenly. “Wait, you’re right! I’m sorry, Cassidy. But I still don’t like the idea of using duct tape. What if it never comes off?”

“Fine, we’ll use something else, but focus, Einstein! We need to escape with our humanity—or doggyness, considering Kiwi—more or less intact,” I hissed.

“That’s the hard part,” Yumi lamented. “Maybe it’s like I suggested to you earlier, Cassidy. What if we have to do something they’re not expecting us to do?”

“Like what, Yumi?” I asked, raising a brow. “It’s not as though the equivalent of Brad Pitt is going to burst in, guns blazing, and we go riding off into the sunset, to the tune of the 80s.”

That got Yumi giggling a bit, even though she still tried to think hard. “Well, I was thinking… they’ve seen the monster, so they know nearly everything we’re capable of. So, why don’t we do something they’ve never seen us do? Like, why don’t we let Odd come up with a plan?”

“Odd?!  _ ¡Mi novio tiene hambre ahora mismo, Yumi!  _ He’s bound to place food-related things in the plan, forcing us to nix it,” I hissed.

“Okay, you’re right.” Yumi closed her eyes, looking a bit frustrated. “But you know what I mean. We should do something they’re not expecting us to do, and that’s how we can trick them.”

“Hm… How about instead of Odd… we could have Hunter come up with something,” I blinked. “He’s new, and—oh, wait… Then that would make him a scapegoat. Hm… Sam!”

“Neither of them were shown by the monster, so they wouldn’t know what to expect, aside from what they’ve already told their whitecoats,” Yumi admitted. “But how do we know Sam wouldn’t be a scapegoat, either?”

“Because we’ve met her before,” Jeremie argued. “None of us really know Hunter all that well, but we know her slightly more than we do him.”

“Exactly! Plus, she’s been to the factory, at least once,” I smiled. “So that counts for something.”

Yumi’s eyes widened. “That might actually work!”

“She does have slightly more experience,” Aelita agreed. “She could probably throw the whitecoats off quite well.”

“So here’s to hoping Sam would come up with some good plan!” I grinned.

Of course, before we could have Sam get everything planned out, the door opened, and in walked all of our whitecoats. Naturally, I could feel myself tensing up. What were they going to do?

Each one of them walked over to their respective subjects, spoke to them, and led them out of the room. My nerves multiplied as I watched Georgina walk over to Hunter and speak to him, before he followed her back over to where I was standing.

“H-hi, Georgina,” I muttered.

“Good morning, Cassidy,” she greeted me with a friendly smile and tone. “I’d like to examine you and Hunter. Could you come with us?”

“Oh, sure,” I grinned, still unsure what was going to happen, but with the knowledge of the books in my mind, I could tell things were going to be quite interesting, to say the least.

Following after my friends and their whitecoats, Georgina, Hunter, and I soon split from them as we walked down the long hallway, before she brought the two of us into another examination room. Once we were inside, she closed the door behind us.

“Ladies first,” she announced, in a gentle voice.

Realizing that meant me, I slowly climbed up onto the examination table, and waited.

Georgina went through the usual motions, checking my pulse, looking through my ears, testing my reflexes, and then listening to my heartbeat in a few different places on my front and back. As she worked, she made sure that the stethoscope she used had a chest piece that felt warm to the touch, and that her presses, especially on my chest and belly, were soft and gentle, even though I was ticklish. It felt as though I was undergoing a checkup, but being cared for by a very gentle doctor.

After a few more tests, including an eye check, as well as an eye test, Georgina had finished.

“You can sit in this chair, now, Cassidy,” she smiled, pointing to an empty seat next to Hunter.

I nodded and hopped off the table, sitting beside him. That wasn't too bad, even if my worries were raised slightly still. But the day was still young, and anything could happen.

“Hunter, sweetheart, it's your turn, now,” she announced in a gentle tone.

“Okay,” I heard him reply, with a bit of nervousness, as he slowly got up, walked over, and sat on the examination table next, trying to keep a calm smile on his face.

She went through the same battery of tests with him, that she did with me. She checked his pulse, blood pressure, and heartbeat, looked at his throat, listened to different parts of his back as he breathed deeply, checked his ears, his reflexes, and his eyes, before having him read off the same eye chart she had me read from, first with his right eye covered, then his left.

“And you’re all set as well, Hunter,” Georgina replied soothingly. “The two of you are quite fit and healthy for your ages. I’m very pleased to hear that.”

Two words stuck out in her speech.  _ All set _ . Sure, Jeremie used those words before, so it wasn't a bad triggering thing, but something felt slightly off hearing them from her.  _ All set for what? _ Yumi would probably be able to remind me what part of one of the books they reminded her of right away, and I was sure those words would set off alarms in her head, as well.

After dealing with my thoughts for a few seconds, Georgina turned to look at the two of us, as Hunter hopped off from the examination table.

“Now, there’s something special I’d like to do with the two of you,” she began, in the same gentle voice she had used before. “Would you like to come with me into another room?”

“Sure,” I smiled, still a bit unsure.

“Yeah, sounds good.” Hunter replied, even though I could tell he was a bit nervous, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

With a gentle wave, Georgina opened the door, and led us out of the room. A short walk down the hallway brought us to another room, and as soon as we walked in, and Georgina turned the light on, I started to realize her plan. This room had a long, shallow, raised up plastic bath tub that was five feet off from the ground, and had a ladder in front of it. Next to it, there was a handshower that hung off from a metal pipe. The tub also had two taps next to the handshower, as well as two pipes, one running through each end of the bath tub. Next to the bath tub, there were two empty chairs, with a cabinet against the rightmost wall.

“Wow…” Hunter and I chorused; myself in awe, him in surprise.

Georgina turned to look at the two of us, with a calm, encouraging smile. “I thought I would do something nice for the two of you. We’ve been giving you all these tests, and we haven’t really given you much of a chance to relax. So I thought I’d help you with that. I’m going to give the two of you a soft, gentle massage, to make sure there aren’t any raised bumps on any part of your body, and then I’m going to wash the two of you, softly, slowly, and thoroughly, from head to toe, including your hair. I only hope neither of you are allergic to the soap and shampoo I’m going to use.”

Looking over at Hunter, I could tell he was a bit surprised by this proposition.

“Uhh… what kind are they?” he asked, looking a bit skeptical.

“Just your basic Dove soap and shampoo,” she replied. “They’re moisturizing, but nothing special. They’re not scented.”

“That’s fine. When I get back to Kadic, I’ll be sure to use my own for a while. But since the School has their own brand for use, it’s okay,” I nodded, turning to Hunter. “What about you, Hunter?”

He took a deep breath. “Yeah, that’ll work for me, too. I think those might actually be better than what I’ve been using.”

Georgina smiled. “That’s great!”

She then gestured toward the bath tub. “Now, I could wash the two of you at the same time, which would save time, or would you like to take turns?”

“Taking turns!” I answered at once. “I don’t like the um… m-male anatomy… all that well…” The thought made me uneasy, considering that seeing Ulrich in nothing but a towel, then having a mouse’s eye view from the floor in his and Odd’s old dorm was a brief, but bad, memory. I swear, if Samurai didn’t get dressed after  _ mi novio _ had his little speech about his parents, I would have been seven seconds away from bolting from the room in a frenzy.

Georgina blinked, but her face expression stayed the same. “That’s fine. I could have the two of you back to back, instead, if you like. But whichever you like better. I don’t want to make either of you uncomfortable.”

“I’d rather do it one at a time, please,” I muttered.

Hunter glanced over at me, with a bit of a curious look on his face. I started to wonder if he really wanted to bathe with me, or was curious about why the whole notion made me squeamish.

Then I heard his next thought.  _ That might make things kinda awkward… but then again, I don’t think I’m gonna like this very much, either… but I bet she thinks I want to see her naked. That’s up to her, and I don’t care if she sees me naked, but I really don’t wanna get into that tub… _

“I-Is it okay if  _ I _ go first?” I added. “Just so h-he gets an idea of what would happen after all.”

Georgina nodded, her warm, friendly smile seeming almost glued onto her face, as it hadn’t drooped, once. “That’s a great idea. There’s really nothing to worry about, Hunter. Once I help you out of your clothes, and into that tub, you’re gonna be so relaxed, you won’t want to get out, even after I finish washing every inch of you.”

Hunter blinked, almost as if he forgot I could read his mind. “Uh… y-yeah, I bet you’re right.”

He then turned to look at me. “D-do you want me to… turn my back… when she u-undresses you?”

I nodded with a blush on my face. “Please…”

He nodded, looking almost as if my reply had made him tense up even more. “O-o-okay… um… j-j-just… let me know when… y-you want me to… t-t-turn back around.”

Georgina turned to look at me, and gestured for me to follow her. Her and I walked over to the tub, before she walked over to the cabinet, and pulled two big, white towels, as well as two white washcloths out, and set them on one of the chairs. Closing the cabinet, she returned her attention to me, as she placed her hands on my shoulders. “Let’s get you undressed.”

I reached behind my back and spun my index finger in a downward spiral in Hunter’s direction.

I heard a few footsteps as Hunter turned to face the wall next to the door, almost as if it was a knee-jerk reaction, as Georgina began to untie my shoes.

“After all those tests, it sure feels nice to have them off my feet,” I smiled as I lifted them out. As soon as my socked feet touched the tile, my nerves sent up a sense of relief. Sure, I took my shoes off every night, but with things so tangled, I figured it would be okay to sleep with them on in case something were to happen in our favor.

“I can understand that,” Georgina happily replied, as she started with my socks, next. “I heard you did quite well in your marksmanship test. Nearly every single target destroyed! That has to be a new School record!”

“Three hundred out of three hundred and one. That last target ended up missed because I was getting exhausted,” I giggled a little, shivering as my bare feet met the cold.

Georgina returned her hands to my shoulders, adding a small laugh of her own. “You’ll have to excuse the cold floors. We don’t have bath mats here, unfortunately. Now, shirt or pants, next?”

“Pants. Luckily my boyfriend let me keep them, even though it was an accidental discovery,” I chuckled slightly, helping her with the button and zipper.

Her and I had soon undone each, and she slowly eased them down my legs. “Oh yes, I’ve heard about that. Odd seems like a wonderful boyfriend to you.”

“Yes, he and I temporarily dated when I wasn’t emotionally strong enough from my breakup with William, but when things got even more traumatic, we decided to keep dating,” I nodded, then blushed, remembering that I was wearing underwear with ponies on them.

She nodded, understandingly, as her hands went for my sweatshirt, next. “It sounds like it turned out for the best. Are William and you still on good terms?”

“Yeah. He brought my Hippity to the hospital, apologized to me for things he did, and even helped out with the defeat of XANA, doing everything we told him. He even helped me out of a rough patch in between the defeat and the hospital,” I nodded.

Her smile seemed to increase. “That’s wonderful! It’s great when things between former boyfriends and girlfriends can end up so wonderfully.”

“Exactly. I was happy when he brought my stuffed bunny to the hospital, since I hadn’t seen him since the time I accidentally slept in Jeremie’s room. Apparently it had been a while since I saw everyone,” I noted, slipping off my sports bra.

She slowly walked her fingers down my sides, almost as if she was trying to tickle me, before stopping at my waist. “Really? Had something happened before that?”

“After I unleashed the monster, I had fallen into a coma for three months. My pulse was low for two of them. I had no idea that I did, but my friends do. In fact, they fought to keep me alive the day the doctors thought I was a goner and wanted to cut my life support. Sure, two or three of them ended up lightly sedated, but they bounced back.”

Her eyes widened with surprise, as she placed her hands upon the sides of my underwear. “Wow… those are some incredible friends you’ve got there. I don’t know any group of friends who would fight hospital staff tooth-and-nail to save someone they were afraid of losing.”

“Yumi told me there were three security guards that proved to be tough, but the fighting stopped when I started opening my eyes,” I giggled, thinking that as a fond memory now.

The smile soon returned to her face, as she began to slowly slide my underwear down my legs. “Three security guards? That’s incredible.”

“It was three against eight,” I nodded. “Odd even said, ‘if only you were awake to see it.’”

Soon she had pulled my underwear all the way down to my feet. “It sounds like it was quite the battle. Bodyguards, sedation… it sounds almost like an episode of a TV series.”

“I know, right? Plus I think that would’ve made for an interesting medical drama,” I giggled, helping her with my clothes.

As he faced the wall, Hunter’s face cycled through a mixture of emotions, as he listened to my conversation with Georgina. I could overhear him thinking about the battle in the hospital, and how interesting it must have been to be there, and see that. I could also tell he was wondering if I would have him stare at the wall for the entire time, or what my plans were. Reading his mind told me he was afraid of overstepping any boundaries, and didn’t want to lose a friend he had gained, despite the fact he hadn’t known me for very long, which I could understand.

“I’ll let you know when you can turn around, Hunter, okay?” I yelled over my shoulder. “Trust me.”

He raised a shaky hand into the air. “O-o-okay!”

Georgina soon pulled a hamper out of the cabinet, and she and I placed my clothes into that. “We’ll wash your clothes as well, so you’ll feel nice and clean for your next set of tests.”

In the back of my mind, I still felt a bit suspicious of Georgina’s and the other whitecoats’ plans, but kept myself from hurting her. Besides, I didn’t know how smooth the tile was, nor did I want to hit someone older than me. This wasn’t like the terrible twins, Part 1, where I fought for Jeremie's wellbeing. She was real.

“That would be nice,” I smiled genuinely. “I think they are so soaked with sweat. I wish we could have had a chance to have our clothes shipped here. That would have helped us a lot.”

“You’d have to talk to Jeb about that, but I think that might be difficult, if not costly to do,” Georgina admitted, before offering me her hand. “Let me help you into the tub, now.”

I took it, the back of my mind insisting that I was making a deal with a devil, but I dissolved the thought. It couldn’t be that bad if she wanted us to enjoy something of a spa day, right? It wasn’t going to kill me.

She helped me up the stairs, and into a sitting position, within the tub. The inside of the tub was a soft, smooth plastic feel, somewhat warm against my bottom. Once I had found a comfortable position, she walked over to the chair, picked up one of the folded towels, and began briskly rubbing her hands against each side.

“Don’t want you to shiver under my touch, sweetheart,” she said with a giggle, as she walked over to me, towel still in her hands. “Which side would you like me to start on, for the rub?”

“The back. The masseuse told me I had a few knots the last time I was at a spa,” I admitted. “I was surprised that there were that many.”

Her usual warm, friendly smile returned to her face. “Well, once I check your entire back half for any raised bumps, I’ll be sure to give those knots a good, gentle workout. How long ago did you say you went to a spa?”

“About a month ago. Sister paid for it after I had that rough patch. Jeremie ended up so relaxed after that,” I remembered.

She nodded understandingly, as she draped the still-folded towel over the side of the tub, before walking over toward my head. “I’ve always found a spa can revitalize just about anyone, and I hope my soft, gentle rubs, massages, and even washes, will help you relax just as much.”

“That would be so delightful,” I smiled. “I mean, Sister was going to pay for another around this time after we got about a week into Kadic. But looks like we might be diverting the plans for a while.”

She beamed warmly, as she held out her hands in front of me. “There’s always a chance you might be able to go for another one. I don’t know if they’ll wash you as soothingly and thoroughly as I will, but you never know. And besides, the scientist assigned to Sissi should be giving her a treatment similar to what I’m about to give you, and later Hunter, right now.”

“I bet she’ll be satisfied. She loved going to the spa the last time we were there,” I giggled.

Once Georgina had helped me into a laying position, she had soothingly rubbed nearly every inch of both halves of my body, and given me a relaxing, invigorating massage; she noted the scar I got so long ago during her initial exploratory rub, and pointed it out to me during my massage, but I told her that it didn’t hurt any more. Once both of my halves had been rubbed, she turned the taps in front of the tub, sending a soothingly warm flood of water to surround me, which she followed with a gentle spray of water across every inch of my body. The entire scrubbing process was just as relaxing as the rubbing, with Georgina soothingly, slowly, softly, and thoroughly washing every inch of skin on my body, sending me into a feeling of relaxation I hadn’t felt since I went to the spa with the others. In a manner of twenty minutes, despite seeming longer, Georgina had thoroughly washed every inch of my body and hair, and softly dried my body in a similar manner, with a soft, gentle towel that was soon wrapped around my body for the moment.

Then it was Hunter’s turn. Coaxing him out of his clothes was easy, but he still reluctantly climbed up the ladder with Georgina’s help, even though he seemed slightly relieved she would rub him first. A soft, invigorating rub across both halves of his body revealed his entire body, like mine, had no strange growths or raised bumps, and a relaxing massage soon followed. When she turned on the taps, filling the tub with four inches of water, I could hear Hunter starting to freak out in his mind, wishing I could control him slightly to help him relax, but knowing that that power was really a fluke. Instead, I merely let Georgina know what he was thinking, and she began to calm him as she talked, cooing softly as she gently sprayed him with soothingly warm water. She then began to wash him, and in a matter of moments, as the soft washcloth explored his body, I could feel him calming down, and starting to enjoy the bath. She spent an extra bit of time on him, trying to keep him calm as she washed him, but soon she had soothingly and thoroughly scrubbed every inch of skin on his body, and his hair was washed similarly, not five minutes later. I couldn’t help but giggle as I remembered his earlier thoughts, as he now didn’t want to climb out of the tub, once his bath was over.

A soft, gentle drying rub with another towel soon followed, Georgina making sure every inch of his skin was as dry as mine, before wrapping the towel around him, remembering my sensibilities from earlier.

It was then that something happened, that reminded me of my fears, earlier that morning.

Once Hunter had been dried, Georgina then walked over to the cabinet a third time, but what she pulled out surprised me. In her hands looked like two hospital gowns, one slightly smaller than the other, which she soon brought over to Hunter and I.

“Another reason why you might like that other spa better,” she joked, trying to keep the mood light, “is that they actually have bathrobes. The most we have are those soft towels you’re wrapped in, and those soft washcloths I washed each of you with. But you two can wear these, just until we get your clothes washed.”

It was at this point, despite how relaxed I could tell Hunter was, after his extended head-to-toe wash, that I heard alarm bells go off in his mind, immediately bringing to its eye the observation I had made, earlier.  _ Wait a second… Cassidy and Yumi told me something terrible was going to happen today… and now I can’t help but wonder if these hospital gowns have something to do with that... _

_ Cassidy, you need to escape right now, _ my thoughts yelled at me.

_ Why? They gave us a bath. Nothing more or less. Such a wonderful experience…  _

While lost in my thoughts, Georgina unfolded the smaller one first, walking over to me, and reaching for the towel around me, while holding the gown in her other hand.

_ Didn’t you learn the last time you were lured into a trap? You’re going straight into the lion’s den, _ they growled.

_ What are you talking about? This bath was so nice… _

In a matter of moments, she had undone the towel she wrapped around me earlier, while making sure Hunter’s eyes weren’t staring in my direction, and began to unwrap it.

_ Your brain is digging at a memory you have lost, Cassidy! Once it has brought it in, you’ll see for yourself. You are too soothed by this honey trap, this time. _

The towel was soon freed from my body, and gently placed into a chair. Georgina then spread out the gown in each hand, waiting for me to slide my arms into the sleeves.

I obeyed the order.  _ I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is so great… _

Once my arms had gone into the sleeves, Georgina wrapped the gown around to my back, tying it snugly, yet not too tightly, so it covered both halves of my body, but stopping above my kneecaps.

_ It’s still digging, girl. Just hold on! _

She then retrieved the bigger gown, unfolding it, before taking off Hunter’s towel, as well. While he obeyed the gentle directions just like I did, I could hear him worrying in his mind, albeit not as much as he was, during his bath.  _ I really, really don’t like the looks of this…! I really wanna be wrong! I wanna be worrying too much! They’ll just wash my clothes and give them back to me, just like Georgina said. She’s gentle, calming, soothing… she’s helped me relax on at least two occasions… I want to trust her… can’t I? _

With his gown soon tied snugly behind his back, Georgina stepped back in front of us, a warm smile gracing her face, once more.

“There!” she declared. “Now you two are nice, clean and freshly washed, and hopefully quite relaxed, as well. Let’s head back to your room.”

I nodded, following her. “Yes, ma’am.”

Hunter nodded as well, at nearly the same time I did. “Okiday.”

Reaching for the hamper that contained both Hunter’s clothes and my own, she led us out of the room, following behind, before returning to the front, hamper in her arms. A short, thought-filled walk down the long hallway took us back into the big room, where Georgina left us, before continuing down the hallway with the hamper.

_ Almost got it, Cassidy! Be ready for a vision, _ my thoughts churned.

_ A WHAT?! I haven’t had one in ages! What makes you so sure that…  _

_ Just trust your conscience. It won’t end with an earthquake, another monster, or you in another coma. It’ll be okay… _

I gulped a tiny bit. My thoughts have  _ got _ to be kidding me… A new vision?! How could I  _ possibly _ get a new vision?! After all this time I thought I couldn’t get another one, and now my thoughts are daring to prove me wrong! This was seriously creeping me out!

_ In five, four, three, two… NOW! _

Instantly, my eyes clouded in front of me. I could see a whitecoat carrying a bag, which bore a label written in Sharpie Marker,  “ **PRECIOUS DNA, INJECT TO SUBJECT 12 IMMEDIATELY!** ” in thick, block letters and quadruple underlined. I watched the whitecoat walk up to an unconscious figure, lying upon a cot of some sort, various different wires running to and from its body into various different machines, with the whole entire setup looking as though it was yet another room in The School. I watched the whitecoat grab one of the wires, before opening the bag he carried. As he reached into the bag, I was able to get a closer look at the unconscious figure, before getting the shock of my life.  _ It was ME! _

Out came a syringe from the bag, which contained a weirdly-colored liquid of some sort. My face tensed up as I watched the whitecoat insert it into the line he held, grinning evilly the entire time.

Strangely, as if the voices in my head had been wrong, an earthquake  _ did _ start, only this one wasn’t created by my psychic powers; this was a natural earthquake. One that Hunter, and everyone else in the School could feel, except me. If I could have seen him, I would have seen him tense up, drop to his belly, and cover his head, out of fear.

With the earthquake in progress, the whitecoats in another room of the School immediately set to work determining the epicenter and magnitude of the earthquake, checking various Richter scales and seismographs within one of their research rooms.

“Hunter! We need to warn the others now! I now know why we haven’t eaten anything since last night…” I whispered to him, feeling a shaking sensation stop. 

He quickly looked up at me, seconds after the sensation ended, pulling his hands off from his head.

“It’s got something to do with these hospital gowns, and that bath, doesn’t it?” he whispered back.

“Partially. I don’t know! This was their idea of a trap, and I nearly fell for it. We need to tell the others.”

A few seconds later, Odd, Kiwi, and Jeremie walked back into the room, the two boys also wearing hospital gowns, with unnerved looks on their faces. The two immediately looked in my direction.

“Was that you, Cat Girl?!” Odd asked me.

“The vision, yes. Earthquake, no. I felt that, too, after I came out of my vision,” I answered swiftly. “Boys, we are in danger.”

“What confuses me,” Jeremie began, “is that you had a vision, one that is usually accompanied by an earthquake; however, this vision was not, yet a natural earthquake occurred nonetheless.”

“California is on a fault line, Einstein,” I deadpanned. “The San Andreas fault? We learned it in Geography with Mrs. Hertz.”

He extended a finger in my direction. “You’re right. That full body rub, relaxing massage and invigorating bath seems to have left me a bit too relaxed.”

“It’s a trap, Jeremie. We’re all in danger! I don’t know what is going to happen, but I know why we haven’t gotten anything to eat. Have you all heard of the expression, ‘Nil by mouth?’” 

Surprisingly, Odd raised a finger. “It was when I was very little. I had somehow gotten a pearl the size of a quarter stuck in my throat. I still don’t know how it got there. The sign was hung over my door.” His eyes widened. “Cat Girl! Is that why we didn’t get breakfast this morning?!”

“Yes. We need to warn the girls, Patrick, and William, and try to escape while we still can. Yumi was right! I can’t believe that I was blinded by the kindness of Georgina’s nice bath!” I gulped.

Hunter got to his feet, grimacing as he looked at me. “Don’t worry about it, Cassidy. They’re probably trained to make it as soothing and relaxing as possible, so nobody freaks out when the time comes. Besides, I fell for it, too. I can’t remember the last time someone other than me washed me, and once I got into it, I just loved it, and didn’t want it to stop. Now I’m wishing I hadn’t let her take me into the tub, either!”

“We all fell for it,” Jeremie lamented, slightly lowering his head in shame. “I worried about the possibility of everything being a set-up. The full body rub didn’t faze me, but as soon as Mark began to massage both halves of my body, and then wash them thoroughly, I completely let myself forget. What’s even weirder is, Mark was gentle the entire time. He’s usually slightly rough in places, and during the entire bath, nothing disrupted my relaxation, at all!”

“That’s the point of a honey trap, Jeremie! Aelita and I fell for it—figuratively and literally in the same day—before, and I still blame myself for that day!” I bowed my head a little bit. “But this isn’t XANA… I know that. He wouldn’t have done anything of this caliber.”

“Of course not!” Odd agreed. “XANA would never have rubbed  _ or _ washed us like that! Unless it was with poisonous soap!”

“Focus, Odd Della Robbia!” I gritted my teeth. “Think of  _ why _ you just got that rub, massage, and bath!”

“Okay, okay! So what happened next in that book?”

“This is unfamiliar territory for me. They kept the flock in cages before the tests, and we got beds. And they tried to kill Max through Gasman before. But nothing like this… We still need to escape! We need a very-thought-out plan—and we can’t blitz the place. We don’t have enough ammo. There goes Plan 15 down the drain…” I moaned.

“Wait!” Jeremie raised his left index finger. “Earlier, we decided that we would try to plot something that the whitecoats wouldn’t expect from us. Do you think we should try to find Sam?”

“But where would we get enough time to get Sam?! We don’t know where she is in this lab,” I asked him. “And she hasn’t exactly returned from wherever she was.”

“And even then,” Hunter interjected, “we probably shouldn’t just burst in on her. There’s a really good chance that’ll set off her whitecoat, and we’ll all get our necks stung. If we do it, we should be subtle.”

“And I don’t want to walk in on her naked!” My hand went over my chest. “Ugh… An ex-girlfriend of Odd’s vs me… The chances of getting KO’d on my end are very high…!”

Odd walked up behind me, and placed his hand upon my shoulder. “Oh, relax, Cat Girl! She’s not gonna freak out if you see her that way! Besides, once she knows what’s going on, she’s gonna wanna get out, as much as the rest of us!”

“Yeah!” Jeremie agreed.

Even though he reassured me the sight of her naked body wouldn’t bother her in the slightest, I still couldn’t help but worry about how she might react to me being alone with her. All I could think about was her thinking I stole her potential boyfriend away from her, and what lengths she would go to, to “fix” that. Maybe she knew Pencak Silat, just like Yumi, Ulrich, Sister, and to a lesser extent, me. She’s usually quite secretive about her plans, so it could really be anything. And it was this uncertainty that bugged me like very little else.

“I don’t know… Plan 120 could get sabotaged very easily. Considering there are other whitecoats, Erasers, and who knows what else?” I put every ounce of fretting into that. “We can’t be too careful.”

“Hmm…” Hunter’s eyes glanced toward the ceiling. “I wonder if maybe we should go undercover? Like, dress up as whitecoats? That way, we can search the rooms without being detected, and when we find Sam, her whitecoat won’t think anything of it.”

“Oh, sure… A five-foot whitecoat, looking as though the coat is dwarfing her in all dimensions,” I scoffed. “That is Plan 87, and it still has a chance to fail badly. Plus their coats are in the American sizes. I’m used to the European sizes since I moved to Kadic.”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Jeremie lamented. “It does sound like a terrible idea, even if I could help you with the measurement conversions, and I’m sure Hunter still remembers American sizing, since he, like you, came from this country.”

“Still, I haven’t been here in  _ years _ , other than that one mission where I had to speak Spanish. Look at it that way. And it might not even work. Especially since they’re bound to find us all missing.”

“O...kay, so we can’t pretend we’re one of them,” Odd admitted. “So, what do we do? Just sit back and wait for her to come back in here?”

“I don’t want to see her naked, Odd,” I fumed.

As Odd was about to reply, the door opened once more, revealing Yumi and Aelita, both wearing hospital gowns like the rest of us. Like Jeremie and Odd, they were more unnerved than relaxed, as they quickly ran over to me.

“Yes, I had a vision and no, the earthquake didn’t appear from my powers,” I answered both their unanswered questions in a fell swoop, my mind springing into the details. “Long story short: We’re all in danger.”

“They got us really good, didn’t they?” Yumi commented, a tinge of anger popping up in her voice. “I should have known that body rub, massage, and bath was all a trap! Pauline was really gentle and thorough, and she even washed every inch of me, before I got into the tub, just like in Japan!”

“And Jeb had disappeared, so I had a different whitecoat this time,” Aelita added.

“This is going to end badly! Unless Sam comes back, we’re not going to make it,” I griped. “I fell for it, too!”

“We all did,” Yumi echoed. “I’m sure even Sam, Ulrich, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and Sissi did, too. And we don’t know where any of them are, so we can’t just go and grab them!”

“See what I mean, Einstein! We have no idea… We’d end up getting lost.”

He scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“ _ ¡Esto es un desastre! _ I can’t believe that I fell for it!” I growled.

Yumi wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm, comforting hug. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. You probably thought that they were just being nice to us, and taking care of us, just like we all did. There’s no need to beat yourself up over it.”

“I’ve beaten myself up every time I remember that, in a matter of speaking,  _ I killed Aelita! _ I know XANA did the job, but in a way, I feel that I did so! I feel  _ responsible _ for every mistake I made in judgment. ‘Cassidy, you should’ve supervised Jeremie a bit more in the materialization research.’ ‘Girl...you should have been calmer with your argument with Jeremie.’ ‘ _ Cassidy, it’s your fault Aelita died! _ ’” I mimicked the voices in my head.

While I kept babbling on and on about every mistake I made, I watched Yumi grimace, almost as if what I was saying was really bugging her, before she did something I really wasn’t expecting, at least not from her, and definitely not when my powers weren’t controlling me.

She slapped my cheek. Not hard enough to leave a bruise, but just enough to shove my head in the direction she slapped, and frazzle me.

“Y-Yumi?” My eyes widened.

“Cassidy, knock it off!” Returning her hands to my shoulders, her tone became firm, yet there was a slight feeling of gentleness I could pick up. “We all make mistakes, okay?! I’d be lying if I said I was perfect! But we can’t keep beating ourselves up over things we’ve done in the past, especially if we’ve already been forgiven for those things! No, you  _ didn’t _ kill Aelita! You didn’t know XANA was going to pull you out of the Celestial Dome! If you seriously think you killed Aelita, then so did Ulrich! So did Odd! And so did I! And who’s to say Jeremie didn’t, by sitting there at the computer screen, powerless to change anything?! You have to tell yourself, ‘yes, I messed up, but I’m not going to let it rule me!’, and you move on!”

Near the end, she softened up. “Cassidy, please… you’re only harming yourself by hanging on to these things! You have to let them go! We’ve all forgiven you! Please, forgive yourself! You can do it! We have faith in you!”

All of Yumi’s words turned into a gigantic wrecking ball, destroying my defenses completely. As they started to sink in, I felt myself lose my composure, and tears began to fall from my eyes. It was at this point that I felt Yumi pull me into an even warmer embrace, comforting me like a big sister, softly rubbing my back as I tried to forgive myself for everything I had done, for all of those things that slowly ate away at me.

Aelita, for her part, had adopted a look of shock while I berated myself, and its result. But she soon came out of it, and walked over to me, reaching up to softly rub my back, along with Yumi.

“Cassidy, I don’t blame you for what happened to me, that day in Sector Five,” her soothing, calming voice wafted into my ears. “That wasn’t your fault, at all. None of that was in your control. None of us knew XANA was going to trick us like that. I wanted to recover my missing memory fragment, and I didn’t even know it was a trap. But you didn’t get me killed, figuratively, literally, or metaphorically. So please, don’t blame yourself for that. I don’t blame you, or anyone else; not even myself.”

That was all I needed. With her soothing, encouraging words, I felt that final lock on my heart completely dissolve, taking a gigantic weight off from my shoulders. I wrapped my arms more tightly around Yumi, just letting her comforting hug, and hers and Aelita’s soothing back rubs comfort me completely.

It was while this happened that the door opened once more, revealing a similarly-outfitted Ulrich, bearing a slightly worried expression.

“That was a magnitude 3 earthquake,” he declared. “That wasn’t you, was it, Cassidy?”

“Vision? Yes. Earthquake connected to aforementioned vision? No. I experienced the very same thing coming out of it,” I said, feeling a bit more free.

“I just passed by their research lab as I came back here,” he continued. “Apparently the epicenter was not far from here. About three miles, actually.”

“Thank heavens,” Aelita murmured.

“That’s still really strange, though,” Jeremie remarked. “First Cassidy gets a vision, the first one she’s had, since her coma, and the earthquake we normally feel when one of those visions takes place was a natural one? This doesn’t make sense.”

“Weird, right?” I grinned. “I didn’t feel the ground move when I came out of a vision, but this time I did.”

“Very weird!” Jeremie agreed. “So weird, in fact, that I don’t have any idea how to explain it!”

“Call it a coincidence, Einstein,” Odd smiled. “Maybe the next vision she has won’t come with an earthquake.”

“Then maybe that monster did more to her psychic powers than we thought,” Ulrich guessed.

“Do you think her powers are unraveling?” Yumi asked.

I folded my arms against my chest, feeling as unimportant as a five-year-old child in an adult situation. “I’m  _ right here, ya know _ !”

A sheepish, yet apologetic smile appeared on my geisha friend’s face. “Sorry, Cassidy. We didn’t mean to make you think we were ignoring you.”

“We’re about as confused about all this as you are,” Einstein added.

“What about you, then, Cat Girl?” Odd turned Yumi’s question in what he assumed was its rightful direction. “Are your powers unraveling?”

“I think my powers might not be as weak as Jeb thought, but I don’t think they’re coming apart. I mean, if they had, they would have gone away by the time I deactivated that weird tower. I shouldn’t be able to keep reading human and animal minds, but I am. My thoughts unveiled that vision because they told me that we were being led into a trap. I don’t remember where it came from,” I shook my head. “They only told me to be prepared for a vision.”

“But there’s definitely something going on here,” Odd pointed out.

Suddenly, Aelita blinked, letting out a slight gasp of surprise.

“I just remembered something!” She turned to me. “Cassidy, do you remember what happened, the day you deactivated that tower on the Old Desert Replika?”

“The screen turned white, then dark, but what does that have to do with any—?”

Before I could finish, my elven friend asked her next question. “Do you remember anything you yelled, between the time the screen went dark, and the Replika exploded?”

“I said an ‘Ow…’ when I failed to commit virtual suicide and shouted for Yumi and Odd to help when they called my name…” I remembered, the memory making my chest clench.

Aelita seemed to tense up a bit, when I replied. As she spoke, I figured out why.

“We heard you shout something that sounded like ‘this has to be fake, it can’t happen, it’s not real,’ before Jeremie yelled your name. We started to wonder if your powers had taken over you.”

My eyes widened. “They must’ve been, my brain was said to be digging it up from my memories, but usually, I don’t forget a vision. In between the white and black screens, I must’ve had a vision, but I think the tower made me forget it.”

“Maybe the vision you just had might have something to do with the one you had in that tower?” she posed, trying to put the pieces together in her mind.

“My thoughts told me that I had lost a memory,” I considered. “It could be that very same one. It felt so familiar.”

”Now I’m starting to wonder if the things you yelled in that tower caused your mind to block out that memory,” Jeremie hypothesized, “and at some point after yours and Hunter’s baths, something Georgina must have done to you triggered its reemergence.”

“I think I’d remember emotional trauma, Jeremie. Remember when I kept Aelita up all night when William suddenly used my nickname?”

“Did you have a vision at any time, before that moment?” was his next question.

“After waking from my coma? No. I only woke up feeling as halfway there as a Bon Jovi song.”

Einstein was trying to sort out the pieces. “Then something in that vision must have been so emotionally distressing, that something caused it to disappear, up until a few minutes ago.”

“Do you think that the white and black screens have anything to do with it?”

“You said that something might have happened in-between them,” Aelita reminded me. “Do you remember any strange feelings at all, when the screen turned white, after you entered ‘Code Lyoko?’”

“I remember undergoing a vision, but then it somehow disappeared from me,” I nodded. “I hadn’t went under my powers in four months, but I didn’t know at the time. Then, I woke, and found the screen had turned black.”

“If your mind told you it was digging at a lost memory, that might have been it,” she guessed. “Otherwise, I’m just as confused as you are. Did you feel like screaming at all, as you watched it?”

“I did, and I must have out loud without knowing it.”

Einstein and my former first roommate looked at each other, as if something clicked within their minds.

“And what about this time?” Jeremie asked next. “Did you feel like yelling anything this time?”

“I wanted to recoil in horror, but I didn’t yell out. I guess I didn’t want to scare Hunter by screaming. It was crazy…”

“Can you remember if it felt anything like the time you were in the tower?” Aelita inquired.

“It felt exactly like that.”

“It had to be!” Jeremie nearly exclaimed. “There’s no other logical conclusions other than that! Cassidy, the vision you had just now, has to be the exact one the tower showed you!”

He quickly ran up to me. “You have to tell us everything the vision showed you! Maybe it can help us!”

I gritted my teeth, but forced them to unclench. Even though I didn’t want to relive it, I ended up explaining the entire thing, from the syringe, to seeing myself lying unconscious on a cot, hooked up to different machines, to the injection. When I finished, everyone looked shocked.

“You sure that whitecoat wasn’t Dr. Shrank?” Odd asked, and I couldn’t tell if he was trying to lighten the mood, or if he was genuinely confused.

“I really don’t know, Odd,” Yumi shook her head, seeming about as confused as he was.

“Even though I never watched that series in full, Dr. Shrank is a saint compared to these whitecoats,” I protested.

And at that moment, the door opened once again, revealing four more hospital gown-clad friends of mine: Patrick, Kaitlyn, Sister, and William. Out of all of them, Sister’s face bore a mixture of relaxation and surprise, while the other three looked unnerved. I can just about guess why, too.

“That was incredible!” Sissi beamed, seeming as though she was oblivious to what had happened. “I thought that spa trip we took a week ago was great, but that rub, massage, and especially that bath was like  _ heaven! _ When we get back to Kadic, I’m gonna talk to my father about putting a whirlpool bath into Lyoko HQ, and hiring someone to wash us, every time any of us want a bath! Oh, with something like that, I’d never hog the girls’ showers again!”

I slowly began to grin at that thought. It sounded like she enjoyed her bath as much as Hunter and I enjoyed ours, and I know that we definitely enjoyed ours. But then I glanced over at Hunter, remembering how much coercing it took to get him into the tub in the first place, let alone getting him to relax while Georgina washed his entire body. Right away, I knew he was kinda worried about the idea, even though Lyoko HQ wasn’t technically his room, just yet, as much as he tried to hide it behind a calm face.

“Calm down, Hunter,” I grinned mischievously. “You know you’d love it, too, once you got into it, if you ever start going to Kadic.”

I knew it got him, because he blinked, and quickly spun around to face me. “Wh-wh-wha…? Wait, you… wha…?!”

Sister immediately picked up on this, giving Hunter a concerned look. “Does that bother you, Hunter dear? You’re not afraid of taking a bath, are you?”

Hunter quickly spun around to look at her, rehearsing his vowels even more. “W-well… eh, y-you see, uh…”

“Oh, yes he is,” I answered for him. “He didn’t want to even go into the tub, at first. Georgina had to tell him she was gonna rub and massage him first, just to get him in there. He really loved those, but when it came time to wash him, I just had Georgina calm him down, and when she started washing him, he absolutely loved it right away.”

Hunter began to grimace, and one of his next thoughts almost worried me.  _ Great! Now Sissi’s going to laugh at me! I know you know how I am with baths, Cassidy, but I don’t know how she’s going to react! _

To his surprise, she walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around him, her concerned brown eyes gazing into his tense, electric green eyes. “There’s no need to be worried about that! Baths and showers feel great! And letting someone wash you softly and thoroughly from head to toe feels even better! Take it from me! After my father gets the whirlpool bath in, and hires someone to wash us, even if you don’t go to school with us right away, we should sneak you into Lyoko HQ, and make sure that we get every inch of your body and hair softly, slowly, soothingly, and thoroughly washed, until you see that you shouldn’t be afraid of getting a bath!”

Hunter still looked quite tense, almost as if Sister’s proposition barely fazed him. “Uh… u-uh, i-i-if you… s-s-s-say… so…”

She grinned at him, reassuringly. “Like my sister said, you’ll love it, once you get into it.”

With that out of the way, her tone and face turned to concern, as she looked at me. “Now, dear sister, did you cause that earthquake we felt, a few minutes ago?”

“Earthquake, no. Vision, yes,” I explained, for what was either the fourth or fifth time. 

She ran up to me. “You had another vision?!”

How could I tell her this... “Yes? B-but if I told you, then you would probably freak out. But believe me when I say, we are all in danger.”

“I trust you, dear sister,” she replied, closing her eyes as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “I may not know what your vision was all about, but I know you wouldn’t lie about one, either! So, what do we do?”

“I don’t know, all 119 of my plans have flaws and—and I don’t know what to do,” I admitted. “And 120 might not even work.”

“Plan 120,” Jeremie explained to the four recent arrivals, “is where we decide to have someone other than Cassidy, Aelita, Yumi, or I devise a plan. Someone they’re not expecting. We decided that Sam would be the one to devise the plan, since the whitecoats have absolutely no information on her, aside from what she told her whitecoat, but we have no idea what room they’re bathing her in. Furthermore, if we were to look for her, we’re bound to be discovered, and unless we can come up with some very convincing lies, we’re bound to have our necks stung, and wake up back here. Unless of course, we’re able to find her…” 

His cheeks suddenly went red at this thought.

“By the time they sting our necks, it could be too late,” Yumi pointed out.

You know how they say “speak of the devil?” Well, that line would come in perfectly handy right about now, as moments later, the door opened, revealing none other than Samantha Knight herself, wrapped in a hospital gown, and looking about as refreshed as Sister did, before she questioned the source of the earthquake. Of course, she wasn’t alone; her whitecoat was still following behind her, with a calm smile on her face. Sam didn’t even get a chance to say anything to us, let alone comment on how wonderful her rub, massage, and bath were, which I could assume would be the first thing she would have said, before the other whitecoats soon came in after them, all bearing calm smiles on their faces, almost like an army. My nerves piquing, I quickly scanned the row of coat-clad scientists to see if I recognized any. My nerves intensified when I realized that neither Georgina, nor Jeb, were among them.

The female whitecoat I came up to in the beginning, Mandy, came up to the front of the pack. “We are ready for you now. Follow me.”

After she spoke these words, it was as if everyone suddenly decided to lay low, and go along with things. Like an unspoken command, all but one of us—Sam was already quite relaxed for real; she didn’t need to pretend—suddenly acted as if our conversation had never happened, and that we didn’t suspect anything, besides an invigorating gesture of kindness. The twelve of us slowly filed out of the big room behind the whitecoats, as they led us down another similar-looking hallway. As I walked next to Yumi, my guard was raised as high as it could go, and I only hoped the others had heeded my warnings, earlier.

Yumi glanced over at me, before whispering in my ear, “What do you think we should do, now?”

_ “No sé,” _ I muttered in Spanish.  _ “Tengo miedo.” _

“I understand,” she whispered back, understanding what I had said. “I’m… scared, too. But maybe it’s… not what we think it will be?”

_ “Esto me asusta más. Citaron a Harry Potter.” _ I tried to keep my body from shaking, nearly fighting to keep myself in the same relaxed stance as I walked.

“It’s not time to worry yet,” she soothingly hissed in my ear.

_ “Sí, así es. ¿Qué pasa si Max y su rebaño no nos rescaten a tiempo?” _

“Maybe Jeb or Ari are calling for them, right now. You saw Georgina wasn’t there, right? What if she’s helping him call for them?”

_ “Quizás... Adivino que tiene un punto allí.” _

“Did she ever act strange at all, when she rubbed, massaged, and washed you and Hunter?”

_ “Nada pareció del común. Pero entonces otra vez podría ser debido a su personalidad.” _

“I’m glad at least the three of us had some warm whitecoats. The others sounded like theirs weren’t too bad, but I wish Jeremie’s had been a bit better.”

_ “Sí, Yumi. No me gusta cuando esto va en absoluto.”  _

“I don’t, either. Everything up to now seemed so subtle. The tests, the check-up, that rub to detect bumps or growths, the massage, the bath… but maybe that was the point. But whatever they’ve got waiting for us, we just have to hope that Jeb, Ari, and Georgina are planning the next step.”

_ “Jeb, Ari, y Georgina al rescate, esperamos.” _

Yumi nodded, keeping a relaxed smile upon her features. This was going to get hairy, and we hadn’t even sprung Plan 120. And then there was the worry of whether or not we’d have enough time. We didn’t even know where they were taking us just yet, even though I was sure Yumi had about as much of a guess as I did. The thought of having to play it by ear scared me the most.

We walked for a short while longer, before the team of whitecoats led us into another room. Looking around at our new surroundings, I found this room seemed quite spacious, even bigger than the one we had been in before. There were exactly twelve beds, but rather than the hospital beds we had slept on before, they had actual beds, that looked quite ritzy, complete with soft sheets, double-stacked mattresses, and very comfy-looking pillows. Whatever exciting effect the sight of the beds had on me was soon diminished when I saw the curtain-like walls in the background; they stopped about a foot from the floor, showing several sets of small wheels, and even table legs underneath, suggesting some sort of machines were hiding behind it. This was what piqued my nerves the most.

Odd whispered into my ear next, keeping a relaxed stance. “So, what now, Cat Girl?”

I shrugged. I honestly didn’t know what to do. I could try to have us all enact Plan 120, but I had this nagging feeling that the whitecoats weren’t going to leave us alone, this time. This was the moment they had worked us up to, and the nerves were killing me.

I could tell that if he wanted to break the relaxation charade, his face would have fallen, and he would have yelled at me. But instead, he acted cool as a cucumber.  _ My trooper, Odd… _

The whitecoats soon brought all of us into the center of the room, and I waited, with bated breath, to see what they would say, or do, next. My bare toes remained unclenched.

“We brought you all in here,” Mandy spoke up, “because we realized the room we had placed you all in before was getting quite small for you. So now we’re moving you into this bigger room, so you all will have more than enough room to stretch out.”

Jeremie gained a relaxed, appreciative smile, even though I could tell he was nearly as worried as Yumi and I were. “Thanks, ma’am.”

Showing an almost-genuine grin, I nodded. I sure hoped that I was wrong… Things were certainly leading up to a point where the worst could happen… should I actually start listening to the voices in my head, this time, despite all the harm they gave me in the past?

Apparently, yes!

Because no sooner had I started to convince myself to relax, then a familiar whitecoat, Reilly of all people, walked up to me, while another whitecoat, a kind-and-warm-looking woman, walked up to Hunter. But I didn’t focus on what the woman was going to say to, or do with, Hunter; Reilly was coming toward me, and he had an evil grin on his face! Only in a remote galaxy, like ones in the movies  _ mi novio _ liked to watch, would that actually be a  _ good _ thing!

“Welcome, Cassidy…” he started.

“Reilly,” I regarded in the most relaxed tone I could manage, cutting him off.

Yumi tried to stifle a gasp, once she saw the predicament I was in, but Pauline grabbed her attention before she could do anything else.

I took a cleansing breath, pretending that the bath had totally cooled my thunder. “Nice to see you again…” Oh, what I wouldn’t give to pour ounces of sarcasm into that sentence, but I couldn’t let him know that we could see through it.

“Oh yes, I’m absolutely sure.” He sure didn’t resist putting sarcasm into his reply, though, as I watched his eyes dart straight to my right arm. “I see that bleeding heart Markson took that shunt out of your arm.”

If that was supposed to unsettle me, he was mistaken. But I kept a straight tone and smiled. “She told me I didn’t need it in my arm anymore…”

“Of course not… like she actually  _ knows _ anything… oh, that’s right; she  _ doesn’t! _ That’s why we  _ fired _ her! And now you’re rightfully mine, once again!”

I was expecting him to follow that with an evil laugh, but surprisingly, he settled for an evil grin, instead.

That wasn’t true. He accidentally let out a thought I could detect in my mind:  _ She isn’t fired, but what I wouldn’t give to actually do that. _ Keeping my eyes relaxed, I took a deep breath. However, I didn’t like when he said I was his. “I think you’re lying to me.”

That actually got him to blink, and turned his expression into one of surprise. “Me?! You think I’m actually  _ lying  _ to you?! Why don’t you go ask Markson  _ yourself _ , if you think I’m lying! Oh,  _ that’s _ right! You’ll have to  _ find _ her, first!”

“You forgot about what I can do, Reilly…” I almost had him, even if I sounded as stoned as Sam. “Did the monster teach you nothing?”

His eyebrows were slowly curving downward, and I could almost see a slight red tint overtaking his face. “I know _everything_ there is to know _about_ you, Cassidy René McGuire! I know about _every_ _single_ _one_ of your psychic powers, so _don’t_ think you can fool me, even for a _microsecond!_ ”

“Full name ultimatum… heard that before, used that before…” He should’ve known better than to use that tactic upon me. “Believe me, Reilly. I have read a  _ lot _ about  _ you _ , too… Your coworkers all think you should work in a carwash, you use brute force against anything that fights or bites you. You even used a modified version of a cattle prod against… what was it you called her… ‘Subject 11?’ Angel.” Man, XANA, along with Jeremie,  _ did _ teach me some things.

And oh boy, did I really get him with  _ that _ one. Poor Reilly just stood there, steam coming out of his ears, his face completely turning red, while the guy kept rehearsing his vowels, utterly flabbergasted by the tactic I used against him.

But that didn’t last long.

“THAT DOES IT!!” he screamed, before he launched himself at me, forcefully pinning me to the floor, with a look of pure anger on his face.

I lost my composure, giving a squeal of distress. “HELP!”

Keeping me pressed down as hard as he could, I watched Reilly reach into his pocket, and pull out a syringe. He brought it up toward my head, a completely psychotic grin overtaking his face.

“THIS’LL TEACH YOU TO MESS WITH  _ ME _ , MCGUIRE!!” he yelled, as he brought the syringe closer to my neck.

Of course, that was when my friends immediately leaped into action, running toward my head. I felt Sister, Hunter, Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, and Sam grab my arms and try to pull me away, while Yumi, Ulrich, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and William ran behind Reilly, grabbing him by his arms, legs, and torso, and trying to pull him off from me. At the same time, they were helped by a majority of the whitecoats, giving them enough strength to completely tear Reilly off from me, wrapping their arms around him as the force flung them all backward.

“Are you okay, Cassidy?!” Yumi asked in concern.

“Nothing broken, but I think I’ll feel that in the morning,” I shivered. “Wrecked in the emotions department, but I don’t feel bad for what I said.”

“You really showed him!” Sam commented, as she and the others helped me to my feet. “How’d you manage to sweet talk him like that?”

“Ripped a section out of XANA-Franz’s book!” I grinned, panting from the push down.

“That’s my Cat Girl!” Odd smiled.

Then, Yumi, Aelita, and Sister walked over to me. My geisha friend wrapped her arms around me, while the principal's daughter and my former first roommate walked behind me, the two giving me a soft, soothing back rub, to help me calm down.

“You did wonderfully,” Aelita grinned.

From Yumi’s shoulder, I watched another whitecoat, a male, walk up to me, with a worried look on his face. He quickly checked me over, hoping that Reilly hadn’t broken any of my bones, scratched any part of my body, or anything like that.

“Are you alright, Miss McGuire?” he asked, concern also in his voice.

“No. I still feel shaky from what he did to me. He almost used a syringe on me,” I panted, some of the trauma bubbling to the surface.

He grimaced, before sending a glare behind himself. “We’ll make sure Reilly doesn’t come near you or your friends anymore. Can we get you into another massage, or a bath, or anything like that?”

“W-with Georgina, please?” I whimpered.

His face softened. “I’ll see what I can do. She should be around, someplace.”

I nodded.

The man walked out of the room, through the door we came in, as my eyes turned to Reilly being forcefully dragged out of the room, through another door. As they pulled him out, he kept his rage-filled face on me.

“YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST OF ME, CASSIDY RENÉ MCGUIRE!!” he screamed. “DO YOU HEAR ME?!”

“That’s a cliché,” Yumi growled, keeping her hands upon my shoulders. “If you ever set foot near her again, you’ll be hearing from us!”

To further illustrate Yumi’s threat, she, along with my other friends, surrounded me, with her, Ulrich, Odd, and William, standing guard in front of me. Even Kiwi, who stayed mostly silent all this time, barked aggressively at the man, keeping by my feet.  _ Odd, Master, hit me with toothpaste. I wanna look rabid! I want to shred his clothes! _

As they dragged Reilly out of the room, Odd bent down by Kiwi, and softly stroked his diggity-dog. “Good boy, Kiwi! Show that evil whitecoat who’s boss!”

I nodded, still shaking by this point. “T-Thanks… Kiwi…” Turning my head downward, I saw that the syringe had been knocked away from the guarding circle. “That w-was scary…”

“I hear you,” Hunter agreed, as he joined Aelita and Sister in softly and soothingly rubbing my back. “I didn’t even think it was going to get that crazy.”

“Tell you the truth, I was trying to be biting to him…” My eyes welled up with tears. I still didn’t blame myself for the words I said, but he caused a damaging blow. He didn’t break my skin, or any of my bones, but he certainly bruised my psyche. I knew he was mean, but I didn’t think that pushing him over the edge would turn him into a psycho.

“You were trying to push him past his breaking point, weren’t you?” Einstein queried.

“Y-yes… I t-totally d-didn’t think he-he-he’d d-do that…” I whimpered.

Yumi soon wrapped her arms around me, with Odd doing the same from behind, as Ulrich walked up to me, placing his hand on my shoulder.

“That’s the thing about crazy guys like that,” he tried to reassure me. “They talk tough, because they don’t expect you to talk even tougher back to them. But when you do, they try to knock you down a few pegs. But I’m sure we’ve seen the last of him, so don’t worry, Cassidy.”

“And I’m proud of the way you handled that… that psycho!” Sister was next, grinning at me reassuringly. “You definitely showed him, dear sister!”

I nodded, tears still streaming down my face. I was happy that they were proud of me, but all in all, I felt emotionally shredded. “T-thanks, Sister…”

“Don’t mention it!” she replied. “And don’t worry, either. You’ll be okay.”

That was when Georgina walked in, a concerned look crossing her features as she walked up to me.

“Cassidy, sweetheart!” she began. “What happened?”

“R-Reilly a-attacked me…” I trembled.

Georgina grimaced. “I heard something had happened in here. It looks like your friends are helping quite a bit. Can I help you calm down in any way?”

“M-May I have another massage, bath, rub down?” I asked.

Her grimace slowly turned into a comforting smile. “Of course, you can, sweetheart. Why don’t you come with me? I’ll take you into another room, and we can do it in there.”

Yumi and Odd slowly relinquished their holds on me, before I followed Georgina out of the room, down the hallway, and into the same room she had rubbed, massaged, and bathed Hunter and I in, earlier. Once we were inside, Georgina wasted no time pulling another soft towel and washcloth out of the cabinet, along with a bottle of bath soap, and shampoo. The hospital gown was soon untied and removed, before she helped me up the stairs, and into the tub. I laid down on my belly, and was given another soothing, slow rub, from my feet to my head, before I flipped over, and the gesture was repeated. The soothing, gentle massage was next, and I could feel myself slowly relaxing under Georgina’s soft, gentle touch, as if she was working the kinks out of my psyche. Laying there, her massage seemed to take longer than it had the first time, as she made sure that I was completely calm. A good, relaxing, invigorating massage on both halves of my body ended with her hands going toward the taps, filling the tub with five inches of soothingly warm water. I laid on my back as Georgina gently sprayed my entire front half with more water, before she dunked the washcloth into the gentle water that surrounded me, and lathered it up incredibly well with the Dove soap, nearly caking the cloth in the process. That gentle, soothing, slow, soft, and thorough wash was what really hit the spot. A smile slowly returned to my face as Georgina slowly, softly, and thoroughly washed every inch of skin on my body and face, taking even longer this time, to really pour on the relaxation. Washing my front half felt like it took forever, and my back half nearly so, but I didn’t care. That washcloth was incredibly soft and gentle, and she could’ve washed my entire body multiple times, for all I cared.

But soon, nearly an hour later, she had soothingly and thoroughly washed every inch of my body, and given a similar amount of time to my hair. Gently helping me back out of the tub, she began to softly and slowly rub the towel all over my body, making sure that every inch of skin had been softly and thoroughly dried, along with my hair. Then she wrapped another hospital gown around me, and tied it snugly in the back.

“There… That's better, isn't it?” she asked in a sweet voice.

I nodded, Reilly’s attack a far memory. I didn't know what it was, but Georgina definitely eased my stress off me. In a sense, she had the magic touch. 

She beamed, relieved that I was feeling much better. “Is there anything else I can do for you, before I take you back into the bigger room?”

“That was it, Georgina,” I grinned.

“Wonderful.” She approached the door. “Then I’ll take you back into the bigger room. Your friends will be glad to see that you’re doing a lot better, now.”

I followed her. “Yeah, they’ll be so relieved.”

The trip back into the bigger room I had come from an hour before was short, and soon Georgina had led me inside. I found my friends standing in a group near the middle of the room, and their attention suddenly turned to me as we walked in, their faces lighting up in relief.

I smiled in reply, walking over to them. “Hi, guys.”

“There you are, Cat Girl!” Odd exclaimed, as they all gathered around me, with  _ mi novio _ , Yumi, Aelita, and Sister the closest. “If we knew you were gonna take that long in the bath, we all would’ve gotten ourselves re-rubbed and washed, too!”

“It was because of the trauma, Odd, sweetie,” Sister grinned. “My dear sister had been roughed up, and it’s only fair that she gets a longer treatment.”

“We’re all relieved that you’re feeling much better, though,” Jeremie affirmed. “While you were off with Georgina, we happened to overhear the other whitecoats talking about something. And this is pretty big stuff.”

I creased a brow and raised the other, in an attempt to look like a longer haired version of my former first roommate when she was hearing the news about Franz H—I mean, Schaeffer—being her father, but a more smiling version. “Hm?”

“There was a lot of movement in the other room over there.” He pointed to the doorway that the other whitecoats dragged Reilly through, before I left. “We could hear them talking about their plans. One of them said something that sounded like ‘we have the extra set of DNA right here. Have you gotten the tools?’ Another one sounded as though she said, ‘this should keep them out for a good five hours. It should give us plenty of time.’ I think they’re really planning something big.”

“Sounds like it, Einstein,” I blinked, my body not reacting the way it normally would. Considering the bath, rub-down, and massage I had, I couldn’t blame it.

Seeing how I reacted, Yumi cast a quizzical gaze in my direction. “Are you okay, Cassidy? It sounds like they’re getting ready to operate on us.”

“It must’ve been the bath, Yumi,” Odd pointed out. “Georgina must’ve really relaxed her.”

Yumi gritted her teeth. “You’re right. We’ll just have to help her, then, when the time comes. I don’t feel as relaxed as I was before, so the time she spent in the bath must have made our relaxation wear off.”

Sam nodded, although I could tell that her relaxation still had yet to wane.

“Dear sister, maybe it’s time we tried Plan 120, since everyone’s here?” Sister suggested, her face starting to show worry.

Next, William walked over to me. “We can’t do this without her. She’s the only one who has anything close to a good enough plan!”

He looked into my eyes, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Cass, weren’t you the one who told us this was a honey trap? That even though they told us that the full-body rub was to check our naked bodies for anything weird, they knew we’d love them anyway, along with the full-body massages, and the baths? That they knew they’d make us so relaxed, that we’d let them do whatever they wanted to us, without stopping them? How do you know Georgina didn’t just spend her time soothingly washing every inch of you, just to make sure you wouldn’t be able to fight back?

“C’mon, Cass! You fell for it, again! And when they see how well it worked on you, they’re bound to make up a lie, pull us all into separate rooms, and give us all another soft rub and gentle massage, before washing us even more softly, slowly, soothingly, and thoroughly than they did the first time, for the same length of time Georgina just did you! We can’t let them do this to us, no matter how much we loved the full-body rubs, massages, and soothing, head-to-toe washes our whitecoats gave us!”

I blinked. How could I be such a vulnerable Fluttershy?! Heck, even she could beat  _ Discord _ , the god of chaos and disharmony, just by acknowledging her own weaknesses. Oh, but that massage was so divine… No! I couldn’t bring myself to allow that rub, massage, and bath to make me lose track of everything! I needed to focus. My friends,  _ mi novio _ , and I were in danger. 

I shook my head, reoriented my position on the board, and looked into his midnight-blue eyes. “Right, I—”

Oh, if only my ex could have been faster!

The next moment, footsteps immediately filled our ears, slowly growing closer and closer, until whitecoats entered the room from both entrances. Their faces were neutral, which caused everyone else to tense up, and they each had something in their hands, which piqued everyone’s (Kaitlyn’s especially) nerves: syringes.

This was it. It was as if all pretense had been thrown out whatever windows this place actually has—if it even has any at all— and they were now just going full speed ahead with their original tactic. If Sam and I hadn’t been so relaxed right now, if my ex-boyfriend had tried to snap me out of it, just a few minutes earlier…

Mandy was at the front, as the whitecoats came to a stop, surrounding us on both sides.

“It seems our friends here know a bit too much,” she remarked, her tone just as neutral as her face. “I think we’d better take care of that.”

A strong arm went across my shoulders in front of my chest, pressing me against someone’s belly. However, seeing that I was as limp as a ragdoll cat, the grip loosened slightly. My eyes widened slightly, my inner voice trying to yell at my body to wake up, struggle, something to get away from this dude.  _ Get out of here! _

I could see everyone else getting grabbed from behind. The ones who became wise to this tried to run away, but were quickly grabbed from the front, before they could do anything. Jeremie, Aelita, Sister, and Kaitlyn struggled. Ulrich tried to squeeze out from underneath the arm of his attacker. Odd tried biting their arm. Yumi attempted to pull their arm away from her body with both hands. William, Patrick, and Hunter tried kicking their attackers. Sam started to become more than just a vegetable in the arm of her attacker, but by then it was too late.

“Game over!” Mandy smirked.

A whitecoat, a man, approached me, pushing aside my long brown hair and gently pressing my head against my shoulder. My eyes widened even more, remembering him as the one who made my neck sting to get me on the chopper. The feeling started to return to my hands, but they were shaking. What should I do? I was too relaxed, and we didn’t have anything to eat.

“Cat Girl! NO!” Odd yelled, voice filled with terror.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, my dear,” he cooed. “Let me help you get some rest.”

I struggled internally, crying out to every inch of my body to actually become useful, again. As I tried to fight my way out of my attacker’s grip, my eyes darted around the room, noticing a few of my friends being braced by their attackers, especially Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Patrick, William, and Hunter, who were trying even more fiercely to escape before, as their attackers were bringing up the syringes they held, getting ready to sting their captives’ necks. None of us could get out of this, no matter how hard we tried. I could feel my body going “fight-or-flight,” just as much as the others’, and nothing was working.

The next thing I knew, I felt a sharp pain enter my neck, before disappearing. My eyes widened, as I realized he was able to strike. I could feel my veins go ablaze with the fire I remembered from the attack at Kadic.

“Sh, sh… it’ll be all okay, my dear… You’ll wake up soon… Goodnight…”

I could feel the fire within my veins intensify, slowly pulling my consciousness with it. But I couldn’t give up, even as I felt my arms, legs, and every other part of my body slowly going numb. Taking one last look around the room, I watched as each one of my friends slowly slumped over in their attackers’ arms.

Jeremie.

Aelita.

Ulrich.

Yumi.

Odd.

Sister.

A few seconds later, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and Hunter soon fell completely limp, with Sam following not too long after.

My eyelids became like weights, slowly pulling themselves down over my eyes. It became harder and harder to concentrate, or even see what was happening. It wasn’t long before my eyesight, aided with my glasses, slowly became worse and worse.

 

...and then all went black.

 

Seems like a recurring trend, doesn’t it?


	9. The Ghostly Experience

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s. As entities, the sedated characters will talk with italics without quotations unless someone is trying to think. Then it’ll be in underlines. Spanish words, titles, and emphasized words are in bold.

Do you remember that one episode of **Teen Titans** , where Raven and Starfire switched bodies? And their ghostly forms traveled around before the swap? Well, let’s just say that I never actually thought that sort of thing would ever happen to me. Not the **body switching** part, but… the ghost part.

This was where things started to get even more creepy. I mean, the whitecoats finally switched to the plan that we, or at least Yumi and I, were expecting from the moment we landed, and entered the School. And they weren’t subtle about it, either, as I just told you. They just ran in, grabbed us, and stung our necks, sending every single one of us to sleep, not too long after.

So, you’re probably wondering what happens next, right? Well, let me warn you… this is about to get absolutely **bizarre** _._

The next thing I knew, I was floating. Or, at least that’s what I thought I was. I was horizontal, and I felt like I could move around a lot better than I could, before my neck got stung. So either those whitecoats were a **lot** faster than I thought they would be, or something’s going on.

I was still in that spacious room, the one with the fancy beds, pillows, and sheets, where they took us, not long after Sam came back from her rub, massage, and bath. The only difference was, I could see every single one of us lying in the beds, with different machines next to each of us, and tubes running from them to different parts of our bodies. If that wasn’t shocking enough, the next thing I heard might have been.

_Cat Girl?_

I spun around, seeing a ghostly form of **mi novio**. _Odd?_

He nodded. _The one and only!_ _Are you okay?_

I nodded, still slightly unnerved by all this. _Yes, I think so. Ugh… Why didn’t I get out of that trance sooner? I screwed it up heavily._

 _Don’t do that to yourself, Cat Girl!_ He floated over to me. _Reilly really got to you, and you needed to relax. It’s like Sissi told you and Hunter, back in our old room: baths are great!_

_True, but William… he tried to warn me._

_Do you think he knew the whitecoats were gonna burst in on us, right after he did that? Maybe Georgina tipped them off!_

I shook my head. _She left after Jeremie spoke to me the first time._

It was then that I heard another voice, one that was gentle, soothing, and disarming, almost subconsciously. _Cassidy? Is that you?_

I looked to see Aelita’s form. _Yes. It’s me. Don’t panic, but I don’t think we are dead. I think we’re having a bit of an out-of-body experience._

Another voice soon joined the fray, this one masculine, and slightly cynical. _Wait, doesn’t that only happen when you’re going to die, huh?_

I looked at the heart rate monitor connected to me. _No, my monitor’s still going at a normal rate._

Next was another feminine voice, this one deeper than Aelita’s, but still soothing and gentle. _That’s a relief. So, all this is happening to you, too?_

Odd nodded, smiling at Yumi. _Yep. I bet we can haunt people now!_

 _Odd… **novio** , that’s a horrendously bad and stupid idea. Plus, we’re not ghosts,_ I scolded.

 _Then why are we floating in midair, over our bodies?_ He interjected. _Did their sedatives switch us?_

_No, this is not like that **Teen Titans** episode we watched last month. I can’t even explain this._

Of course, the next voice belonged to someone who could. Someone whose voice was slightly in-between masculine and feminine, and a bit on the high end of the scale.

 _It’s a sort of corporeal distortion, Cassidy,_ he explained, floating toward us. _When the whitecoats injected us, sending us into a medically-induced sleep of sorts, our bodies became numb, and our spirits were allowed to escape. The reason we’re all able to communicate with each other is probably because of our familial closeness._

 _That makes sense. Ugh! I still can’t believe that I couldn’t throw the relaxation off me fast enough to enact Plan 120,_ I berated myself.

 _Cassidy, that situation was out of your control,_ Jeremie tried to reassure me. _None of us knew the whitecoats were going to come in, so soon after you came back, and attack us like that._

 _And would you rather have stayed upset?_ Yumi added, folding her arms and creasing her brow. _Remember what Aelita and I told you about forgiving yourself._

 _Right. That lesson’s still new to me, Yumi,_ I grinned sheepishly. _Sorry about that._

Her expression softened. _It’s okay._

Odd raised a finger. _You should have gone into that room with her, Yumi, instead of Georgina. I thought friends shared baths in Japan? I’ll bet that’s exactly what both of you would do every morning, whenever Cat Girl—_

 _ODD!_ Yumi and I chorused, feeling our entities heat up as though we were blushing.

Even Jeremie grimaced a bit. _T-that’s… something we usually do in private, isn’t it?_

I nodded. _Yes..._

A high-pitched, yet echoing, bark emanated from the air. _Darn those whatever they ares…_

This time, instead of just me, **everyone** heard Kiwi.

Everyone’s eyes widened, as **mi novio’s** diggity-dog came slowly floating over. Odd was the most distraught by this.

 _Even my little diggity-dog…?!_ He spoke in a small voice, holding out his arms as Kiwi floated toward him. _How could they do this to you…?!_

Kiwi blinked, not even stopping before landing in his owner’s arms. _I wish I could tell you, Odd, Master._

Hearing Kiwi’s voice for the first time, something usually only I could telepathically hear, surprised Einstein, as well.

 _Am I totally out of it, or did I just hear Kiwi talk to Odd?_ He inquired.

 _You’re not if everyone is hearing it. Usually this was my way of communicating with him, if you remember, Jeremie._ My entity heated up again.

 _This moment keeps getting weirder and weirder,_ Jeremie lamented.

 _Hey, we ended up getting captured by Erasers, and now we’re at the whitecoats’ mercy while having an out-of-body experience. I think the weirdness scale is at the nothing, zilch, **nada** now!_ I muttered as though to say, _I have the bravery of a chicken nugget. Please don’t call on me to answer._

Jeremie lowered his eyes, nodding. _You’ve got a point._

 _And it’s probably going to continue to get weirder,_ Yumi reminded us. _I know Cassidy does, but do either of you three know what they’re about to do to us?_

Thanks for keeping me out again, I thought bitterly.

 _I still have the idea that this is exactly what Dr. Shrank would do to us,_ Odd answered, petting his dog’s entity.

 _But Dr. Shrank wouldn’t turn us into ghosts, or poly-whatever-thingamajigs!_ A new voice entered the fray, somewhat high-pitched, yet gentle.

 _Sister!_ I quickly floated to her and wrapped my ghostly arms around her. _Oh, it’s so good to see you!_

She met my embrace, even if I was sure she couldn’t feel it, either. _Oh, it’s so good to see you, too, dear sister! I was so afraid that, when I turned into this floating… whatever I am, that I wouldn’t see you, or anyone else, ever again!_

 _I’m sure we’ll wake up,_ Aelita reassured, trying to keep us from freaking out.

 _Aelita is right,_ Ulrich nodded. _They can’t keep us this way forever._

 _By my estimation, before we became these forms, I’d say we’ve been out for… half an hour,_ Jeremie said. _They did say five hours._

 ** _Five_** _hours?!_ _You mean we have to stay like this for five whole hours?!_ Sister was slightly becoming hysterical, alerting me to a quickening sound.

 _Calm down, Sister. Your heart rate’s going off the charts._ An amused thought hit me. _How ironic. First my own goes off when I woke from my coma, then **yours**._

 _Huh?!_ She looked down at her unconscious body, lying in one of the beds, with the covers pulled up to its shoulders. _You mean that anything I do up **here** , I feel down **there?!**_

 _Seems that way. Try to keep yourself from freaking out. The whitecoats will probably get agitated that one of us is having a reaction,_ Jeremie answered.

Before she had a chance to relax, we heard another voice, one that would have set Ulrich off, had it happened a few years earlier.

 _Wow! This is killer! Look at me, guys! I’m like the third boss in **Ultimate Blaster**!_ William called out, as he soared past us.

 _Ex-y!_ I rejoiced, almost grabbing his arms.

 _Hey, Cassidy!_ He sounded happy to see me, as well. _Hey, you’re floating, too!_ _All of you are! This is so cool!_

 _I know,_ Odd smiled, petting his puppy’s essence.

Sister looked over at William, worried. _Be careful, William, dear! You might fly into a wall, if you’re not careful!_

 **Mi** **ex novio** nodded.

This was when two more voices filled the air. The first was masculine, yet had a slight feminine tinge to it, while the second was feminine, and slightly lower in pitch than Sister’s.

 _Does anybody know what happened to us?_ It was Patrick.

 _This is so weird, cuz! It’s like we’re dead… but we’re not!_ Kaitlyn was with him, as the two floated toward the rest of us.

 _We’re having a sort-of out-of-body experience,_ I explained, head lowering as my entity heated up.

 _Well, that’s okay,_ Patrick’s tone picked up a little bit. _It’s kinda like the secret level in **Galactic Invaders**._

 _But that’s a video game, and this is real!_ Kaitlyn interjected. _Maybe there’s some reason why we’re like this! Did we do something wrong?!_

 _Not likely._ Jeremie shook his head. _Our corporeal entities, when sent into a state of sleep, by the sedatives the whitecoats injected into us, allowed our spirits to temporarily escape, thus creating this situation._

 _This is weird, Jeremie,_ Aelita agreed, also starting to feel a bit worried.

The rest of us nodded.

 _I **really** wish we weren’t **in** this situation,_ I lamented.

 _I agree,_ Yumi lowered her head, shamefully.

 _Me, too,_ Sister added.

 _So do I, but I’m sure we can find a way out. Maybe something good will happen,_ Aelita suggested.

 _True, maybe Max and her flock are on their way right now!_ I realized. _Jeb did say he would rescue us somehow._

Yumi’s eyes widened, as she looked up at me. _You’re right! They’ve got to be coming this way. They’re probably only as fast as birds, so they’re getting here as quickly as they can. I only hope it’s not too late when they do arrive._

 _Plus flying takes a lot out of them. Remember that one passage: **Flying burned energy like nothing else, and after a long flight, I felt like I could eat a cow. Fork optional,**_ I recited, eyes brightening. _Wow… that was neat._

Yumi seemed surprised by it, as well. _Did that just instantly come to you?_

 _I think so. I guess our entities aren’t tied back by headaches when trying to remember something,_ I smiled.

 _You know,_ Odd spoke up, _I could go for a hundred hamburgers, too! Maybe even a chicken or two for dessert!_

 _Looks like that will have to wait,_ Jeremie said.

 _Wait for what?_ Odd inquired. _For Sam and Hunter to get here?_

 _No!_ Aelita jumped in, pointing her entity’s finger down at her unconscious body, which was also lying in a bed, covered up to its shoulders. _Look! Those whitecoats are doing something to me!_

I couldn’t help but watch. _I think this is what my vision was telling me. But it feels so surreal._

 _You said they were injecting some sort of syringe into you,_ Aelita commented, as she watched one of the whitecoats pull her body’s bare arm out from underneath the covers. _Where do you think they got it from?_

I watched. _I don’t know._

Next, another whitecoat pulled an empty syringe out of his pocket, before gently stinging her arm with it. Surprisingly, entity Aelita cried out in pain, holding the exact spot where she was stung.

 ** _AELITA!_** Jeremie and I cried out. _Are you okay?!_

 _I… I don’t know!_ She was quite surprised, as she pulled her entity’s arm away, revealing absolutely nothing in the spot she covered. _It’s as if anything my body feels, I feel up here!_

 _It’s like if one of us gets panicky up here, the result happens down there,_ I noted, before my eyes widened. _I—I think we just found our answer. But what would **that** do? It would be a tiny blood transfusion. And I’m not losing blood, am I?_

Yumi glanced over at my body, as one whitecoat walked past it, while another walked over to it. _No, you’re not._

Suddenly, I felt like purring. _Oh, God… they’re p-petting my hair…_ I couldn’t help it, sounding as though I turned into a cat.

 _Wow!_ Odd quipped, grinning at my entity. _Even as a specter, you’re still part cat!_

Yumi continued to watch the whitecoat gently stroke my body’s hair, just as I had said. He seemed to have an evil grin on his face.

“You’re such a pretty little cat girl, Miss McGuire,” he remarked. “Soon you’ll see what changes we have in store for you…”

 _Was that REILLY?!_ I asked, panic starting to envelope me.

To answer my question, Odd floated down toward the whitecoat, while Yumi floated closer to me, as if she was trying to rub my back.

 _Even if it is,_ she reasoned, _you’ve got to stay calm. Any rise in our heart rates could set them off._

Shortly after she calmed me, the ten of us heard a high-pitched, masculine cry of pain, like someone had been punched in the side, or had their toes stomped on.

Worry crossed my essence’s features as I immediately glanced at Yumi, who I could tell was thinking the exact same thing I was. **_Was that ODD?!_** we chorused in fear.

It didn’t take us long to get our answer, as a few seconds later, Odd floated back up with the rest of us, his essence’s left hand covering a spot on his right arm.

 _Nope!_ He replied, a calming smile on his entity’s face. _Just your not-so-friendly neighborhood whitecoat!_

Suddenly, his face fell, as he lifted up his essence’s left hand. _But I think that other one needs to trim her fingernails! That last touch really poked me!_

Yumi’s eyes immediately zoomed toward the wildcard’s unconscious body, just in time to see the female whitecoat Odd mentioned pulling a syringe out of his arm, filled one-fourth of the way with blood. _Why would they want **your** blood, Odd?_

 _Maybe they’re worried about my blood sugar,_ he guessed.

 _This is too weird,_ I blinked. _First they take a sample of Aelita’s blood, which I could almost see coming, but now they’ve sampled **mi novio’s** blood, too?!_

 _They could be doing anything with it,_ Einstein floated over toward Yumi, Odd, and I. _They probably have another experiment in mind, if it’s anything like your vision, Cassidy._

_That’s true, Jeremie. But I’m not sure if I want to find out what they plan to do with it..._

Before I could continue, I decided to relax, my entity floating backward as I continued to purr, relieved to remember that the whitecoat running his fingers through my hair wasn’t who I thought it was. _But thank goodness that whitecoat that’s petting me isn’t Reilly… I got worried that he somehow got into this even after that other one told us he wouldn’t bother us again._

 _They took him pretty far away,_ my geisha friend recalled. _We heard footsteps going for several seconds, before they finally stopped._

 _Glad to hear it,_ I smiled, still purring. _And would he **stop petting mi pelo?!**_

 _I don’t know how we can stop him,_ Jeremie remarked. _Maybe he’ll get tired of it and walk away, after a few more moments._

 _Okay, new rules on my body when I wake up: No one is allowed to pet my hair except close friends, family of, sisters by choice, my family, and boyfriends. William, you’re allowed because I consider you a close friend,_ I crossed my ghostly arms in front of my chest. _Okay?_

Everyone nodded in agreement.

_Good._

Aelita soon let out a sigh of relief, as she watched the whitecoat remove the syringe from her arm, bandage the insertion site, and gently place it back under the blanket.

 _I only hope they’re going to do bloodwork on Odd and me,_ she remarked.

 _If my vision is coming true, I don’t know, Aelita,_ I tried to remain tactful.

 _Maybe you’ve got a special kind of blood like me,_ Odd suggested, _and they don’t have very much of it, so they’re taking a couple samples to hang onto, for later!_

 _Odd, that’s what a blood drive is for,_ I felt my entity heat up. _And you and Aelita are too young to give._

 _She’s right_ , she agreed. _They must be using the samples for something else._

 _But for what?_ Kaitlyn inquired. _What would they possibly want to do with your blood, Aelita and Odd?_

 _I’d rather not find out,_ I growled, but my spirit still vibrated.

A short time later, the whitecoat took his hand away from my body, finally causing my entity’s purring to stop, which I thought was a great relief.

_Thank goodness… I thought I’d have to act like a cat forever…_

Yumi smiled. _I’m sure he would’ve been called away to help out with something else, after a while, if he hadn’t stopped just now._

And that was when the last of our friends finally came around, answering a question Odd had jokingly asked, earlier. Two voices were heard, one feminine and of a somewhat mid-range pitch, the other masculine, his voice almost like a slightly lower-pitched version of Jeremie’s.

 _This isn’t the kind of thrill session I imagined!_ The female voice called out, as Sam came floating over toward us. _Odd! What’s going on with me?!_

Hunter, the second one, came not long after, floating over at a slower pace. _I r-r-really don’t know w-what’s going on here… h-h-how am I… u-up here… and… d-d-down there… a-at the same t-time?!_

 _If you had heard me, both times as I had told everyone else,_ Jeremie was starting to get agitated, from having to explain their current status multiple times, _you’d already know we’re floating, because we’re asleep! We’re spirits!_

 _Jeremie!_ Aelita scolded. _Maybe they weren’t able to hear you. It took them a while to finally come around, after all._

He sighed, looking at his girlfriend. _Yeah, you’re probably right._

Hunter raised his ghostly hands up to chest level, defensively. _I’m sorry… I-I-I didn’t know, okay? I-I’m just really f-f-freaked out!_

 _Hunter, it isn’t your fault,_ I reassured him. _Jeremie just hates to repeat himself multiple times._

He lowered his ghostly hands and took a deep breath, which is weird, considering he didn’t even need to breathe, in the first place. _Yeah… I-I guess I can… u-u-understand that…_

Jeremie adjusted his ghostly glasses, another thing I didn’t understand, but Kaitlyn and I seemed to be wearing ours, too. _Right… it seems that when the whitecoats stung our necks, sending us into a sleep-like state, we experienced a corporeal distortion, which temporarily allowed our spiritual manifestations to escape from our physical bodies, which is why we’re up here, **and** down there, at the same time._

Much **better** , Einstein, I thought.

 _So, that means we get to watch the whitecoats operate on us?_ Kaitlyn looked a bit worried.

 _If we're in the same room, then yes. Tell you the truth, this does feel weird to me,_ Kiwi pretended to scratch his ears.

 ** _Huh?!_** Kaitlyn, Patrick, William, Hunter, Sister, and Sam all looked over at Odd’s ghostly diggity-dog, as if he had randomly peed on all their physical legs.

 _Sister, dear,_ Sister looked worriedly at me, _am I hearing things, or did Kiwi just talk?!_

 _I would be lying if I said you were hearing things,_ I replied.

 _This is so unreal!_ William remarked, his look of surprise turning into a grin. _This is better than a dream!_

 _B-but, this isn’t a dream,_ Hunter reminded him. _I-if this was a d-dream, wouldn’t we be able to c-change it? You know, l-like a… lucid dream?_

Yumi nodded. _None of us are dreaming. Otherwise, I’m sure we all would have turned this into a dream where we’re back at Kadic by now._

 _Yeah… Sister could do some cool makeovers in Lyoko HQ,_ I smiled.

Her ghostly face lit up. _Ooh! And convince my father to put that whirlpool bath in there, and hire someone to wash us, whenever we want!_

Suddenly, I felt my entity shake, but no one was shaking my body or even uncovering me. _I think I’m having a vision…_

Before anyone could reply, or even react, I started reciting a news report as if I was a news anchor, sounding just like the one who reported on the comet VG724, Olivia.

**_Authorities today are continuing the search for twelve missing adolescents and their dog, eleven reported missing from Kadic Academy, with a twelfth reported missing shortly after. Eleven of these adolescents were boarding students attending the Academy, Jeremie Belpois, Aelita Schaeffer, Kiwi and Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, William Dunbar, Elisabeth Delmas, Patrick Belpois, Kaitlyn Belpois, Samantha Knight and Cassidy McGuire, while the twelfth, Hunter Moebius, was reported missing by his aunt and uncle. Jean-Pierre Delmas, principal of the school, told police on Wednesday that several scientists and strange wolfish men visited Kadic, sedated most of the faculty, himself included, and abducted the eleven students. This correlates with the story given by Jeanette and Marcel Moebius, the purported relatives of Hunter, that claimed he had gone for a walk, but had not returned after five hours._ **

My voice suddenly changed to Mr. Delmas’. **_We want to assure everyone that the search is continuing, and we will not stop until the children and their dog are found. The faculty of Kadic, including myself, takes great care of our students, and assures everyone that the abductors will be found, and dealt with appropriately._**

I suddenly stopped for a few seconds, before continuing in Mr. Delmas’ voice, **_Sissi, dear, if you can hear me… Daddy’s looking for you and your friends. Don’t worry, we’re going to find you._**

 _That was Daddy!_ Sister cried.

**_If Cassidy McGuire is with you… I’m worried about her, too. I really hope the both of you are safe and sound, wherever you are._ **

Sister smiled warmly, as she looked over at me. _Daddy’s worried about you, too, Sister dear. He is your substitute father, after all._

Before I could react, my voice changed to Jim's. **_They definitely messed with the wrong Jim! If those dunderheads ever show their faces here again, I’ll show them the hard way out. As for what happened, I'd rather not talk about it._**

Everyone couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Next, Anthea’s distressed voice was heard. **_They had just weakened XANA… how could anyone do this to her, or any of them?! We thought everything would be safe, for a long time! And now… Aelita, sweetheart! We’ll find you and your friends, just as you would have tried to find us!_**

 _M-Mommy?_ _Daddy?_ Aelita whispered.

Jeremie floated over toward his pink-haired girlfriend, and wrapped his ghostly arm around her, despite the fact that he knew she wouldn’t feel it.

 ** _We’re worried for our daughter, too._** My voice changed to Takeo’s. **_This is an injustice that will not go unpunished! I hope her captors will feel the shame they have brought upon their own families!_**

 _Mom… Daddy…_ Yumi’s voice was nearly fragile. _Hiroki..._

Next was the voice of Hunter’s uncle, Marcel, who had a slight French accent. **_I simply don’t understand. We had brought him here to immerse him in French culture, before he was to be enrolled into Kadic Academy. Was this because he was an American?! His French was getting better every day!_**

 _Uncle… Marcel…_ Hunter squeezed his eyes shut. _A-Aunt… Jeanette..._

My voice switched to Bruno’s, but my eyes widened when it did, **_My son has gone missing?! How do you expect me to just sit back and let this happen?!_**

 _Nice to know you care, Dad,_ I heard Ulrich muttering, still in shock.

My mother was next. **_One of my baby girls is missing?! She was a hero to her own country! She even broke a record with MegaTanks! How could this happen to her?!_**

Mom… I gritted my teeth, but had to keep going. They do know… 

Then Jeremie’s mother could be heard. **_I-I don’t understand! What could anyone hope to gain by kidnapping my poor Jeremie?! He’s made Michael and I very proud, both by what he has done in school, and by his actions against XANA, along with his friends. Jeremie, dear… we miss you, and we hope you’re alright!_**

From beside me, I heard Einstein’s voice come close to breaking, if that was even possible in his current state. _Mom… Dad… w-we’re gonna f-find a way out… I promise you._

James came on the line. **_My son is a dynamic youngster. He may not be perfect in school, but that does not give anyone the right to kidnap him! They’ll be found, and dealt with properly, I can promise you that!_**

William smiled. _We will get out of here, Dad! You can bet on that!_

The next voice to come out of my entity’s mouth was Katie Belpois. **_They did what?! I hope they find her and her friends fast, and deal with those who kidnapped her! Kaitlyn, Cookie Foot, please tell me you’re safe and sound, wherever you are! The police will find you!_**

 _Don't worry, Ma! I’m gonna get out of this prison and then kick some ass!_ Kaitlyn declared, no one even daring to comment on her curse words.

And then Hector Belpois’ voice came after. **_Patrick, wherever they’ve taken you, please, just do whatever they say. We all miss you, and we know the police will find you soon enough. Please, hang in there! For your mother and me!_**

Patrick clenched his ghostly fist, a look of concern overtaking his entity’s face. _I will, Dad, Mom… don’t worry. I won’t be here for long._

A voice very near and dear to **mi novio y yo** , Odette Della Robbia’s, wafted through my entity’s mouth, next. **_I’m sure Odd will pull through, just like he has in every other situation. They probably just needed him to fix something for them. He’s quite good at fixing things, you see. If they don’t bring him back after he’s done, I’m sure he’ll be found. We miss you, Odd! Take care of Kiwi for us._**

Odd couldn't help but smile. _There’s my Mom and Dad! We’ll get back, don’t worry, Mom!_

But Odette wasn’t finished. **_And Cassidy, Sweetie, if you can hear this, we miss you, too, and hope that wherever you are, you’re taking good care of Odd, and he’s taking good care of you. He must have missed you so much, he asked them to bring you along, too. But we know they’ll find the both of you, safe and sound._**

 _Asked?_ More like dragged along for the unintended ride, but thank you, Mom… My eyes would have streamed with tears.

And then it was Bridgette Knight’s turn. **_I always knew she would wind up with the wrong crowd. We didn’t want it to happen, but we hope they’ll find her. I hope she takes this as a lesson, and a need to turn herself around. But Samantha, we love you, and we miss you… please come back home safely!_**

 _I hope that they won't pull me out of school. I like Kadic,_ Sam worried.

 _Why would they do that?_ Odd looked over at her, trying to reassure her. _Once they find where we are, we’ll tell them it had nothing to do with you. Besides, they’ll be more likely to be happy you’re back._

Then the news anchor came back on. **_Rock band “The Subdigitals” today also shared their sentiments over the abduction of the twelve, specifically Aelita Schaeffer and Cassidy McGuire. McGuire and Schaeffer, formerly Stones, had earned a DJ spot following a contest sponsored by the band, performing a Moody Blues cover song that fans all around the world enjoyed on their second album. When told about the situation, drummer Chris Morales had this to say._**

Chris Morales followed. **_T-they’ve been kidnapped? Then we’ve got to make sure that the police find them. If they try to hold them for ransom, they’re not getting anything from us. Aelita, Cassidy, if you can hear this… Nico, Benoit, Sophie, Simon, and I all hope you’re both safe and sound, wherever you are. Hopefully they’re not mistreating you._**

 _Chris!_ Aelita smiled.

I'm hearing this, alright, **coming out of my mouth** , I fought to keep a straight face. This was no time for me to laugh. Besides, I was still giving the report.

The anchor’s voice returned. **_The band later released a press statement, saying that they hope for the successful location of Schaeffer, McGuire, and the ten other abductees, and their condolences go out to the affected families._**

I’m glad that they care enough for all of us, I blinked.

**_The police are urging anyone with any information pertaining to the abduction of the twelve adolescents to contact Police Headquarters immediately. Personally, after everything the ten Kadic Academy boarders and their fellow canine had done for the entire world, in regards to their fight against XANA, this comes as a major shock, and a major blow. This could only be done by kidnappers who have much to gain from this abduction. What are their motives? What do they seek to gain from this? Only time will tell. But I believe everyone will agree with me, when I say that this is too great of a loss to everyone, around the world, and hope for their quick and swift rescue. Olivia Descartes, France 24 News._ **

I stopped being a radio after that, as my own emotions slowly began to get the better of me. Just as we had assumed, everyone had started looking for us. I couldn’t help but feel incredibly overjoyed, both by this fact, and Jim being alive, but at the same time, an overwhelming sense of fear, because of how long it might take them to find out that we weren’t being held prisoner in France.

Yumi looked over at me, a reassuring smile on her entity’s face. _At least we know for sure that Jim’s still alive._

I nodded, a slight giggle rising in my essence’s throat. _Yeah, it was really cool to hear his voice coming out of my mouth. Jeb was right! I'm so happy!_

Sister wrapped her ghostly arms around me once more. _Oh, I’m so happy, too, dear sister! They’re going to find us, too! Maybe Jeb told them where we are, too!_

 _Maybe, but we don't know that for now,_ I blinked. _I can't believe **this** is happening to us._

 _But at least we know they’re looking for us,_ Ulrich noted.

 _That's always reassuring,_ Kaitlyn nodded.

Hunter nodded in agreement, as well. _A-And it tells me something… you try to get immersed in French culture… b-before going to a F-French boarding school… and you get taken back to A-America… anyway. My aunt must’ve… told the news that I was… g-getting ready to enroll into K-Kadic… once I was able to… it was after I heard about you guys… I r-really wanted to meet you all… and become your friend… you guys are like my heroes…_

 _We understand, Hunter,_ Yumi smiled.

Odd grinned. _And soon, you **will** be going to school with us! We’ll be glad to have you! It’s like a dream come true, isn’t it?_

Hunter nodded, and I could tell he was getting pretty excited, just thinking about it. _Oh, like you wouldn’t believe!_

That was when my eyes darted down to the door where the whitecoat took Aelita's blood away. Something wasn't right. What were they doing with it? What purpose did that do? All it seemed to serve was to make my former first roommate cringe in pain. She was just as worried about it as I was.

But all our questions were about to be answered, and not in the way any of us expected.

Both doors into the room soon opened, as twenty-four different whitecoats filed in, twelve from each door, all carrying plastic bags, containing some sort of weird liquids. The whitecoats carried these bags over to each of our bodies, before walking around to the machines that controlled most of the wires that went into and out from each of our bodies, rolling over metal poles, such as the ones that would hold blood samples, and intravenous bags, and attaching the bags they carried to them. From there, each whitecoat took a wire from the machine, which was already running to one part of each of us, and inserted them into the bottoms of the bags they had just hung. The liquid began to flow from each bag, through the wires, into each of us.

 _Wow!_ Odd remarked, surprised. _Now this really feels like **Hospital of Horrors!**_

The thought of that, along with what we all had just seen, scared me. What if that’s the bird DNA that Max and her flock also got in the womb?! Things were getting even crazier. I only hoped that they didn’t make us lose a sense of our own humanity—or doggyness.

Sensing my entity shake, Yumi held me close to her side, if such a thing were possible. _It’s gonna be okay, Cassidy. It looks horrible now, but it’s going to get better. Just try to be brave._

 _I have the bravery of a **chicken nugget** right now, Yumi. I don’t know what to do. Not even in this form,_ I whimpered.

 _But do you want to run the risk of having a heart attack down there?_ Jeremie inquired.

 _Won’t the whitecoats just think she’s reacting badly to whatever’s in those bags?_ Ulrich argued.

 _But she has panicked in front of them before,_ Sister brought the point to the front.

 _A-And… Georgina isn’t…  h-here to help her body… calm down…_ Hunter pointed out, extending his ghostly index finger toward my motionless body.

Yumi’s eyes widened. _That’s right!_

 _Does anyone know a solution?_ Kaitlyn asked.

 _First we all need to just stay calm,_ Jeremie suggested, even though from the sound of his voice, it was easy to tell he was just making it up as he went along. _We don’t know what’s in those intravenous bags, but making any rash decisions, and causing our physical bodies any sort of pain might end up making things more dangerous than they will be, once we finally wake up. Let’s just… play it by ear, huh?_

 ** _Playing it by ear,_** _huh? Well, let’s go over playing it by ear, our life, so far. We didn’t get to escape the sedan, nor did we get the chance to do Plan 120, and I should have been able to throw my relaxation trance off to enact it,_ I trembled, fear and shame mixing into a deadly combination.

Before he could reply, Jeremie happened to glance down at my unconscious body, grimacing as he watched the machines that were connected to me reacting to it.

He quickly looked back at me, and waved his ghostly hands in front of his entity. _Okay, okay! So playing it by ear is a terrible idea. Cassidy, the first thing we need to do, is find a way to get you to relax!_

Sister found Jeremie’s grimace contagious. _Please, dear Sister… the whitecoats are bound to get antsy if you don’t calm down!_ She placed her ghostly hands together, trying to interweave her fingers, but forgetting how hard it is to do that, when you can’t even feel your own fingers. _What if I… give you as many hugs as you want, every single day? Just ask me, and I’ll drop whatever I’m doing, and hug you!_

That actually wasn’t a bad idea. _That would work. I’d absolutely love that, Sister._ Slowly, my entity calmed down.

Before anyone else could react, a new whitecoat entered the scene, carrying a new bag. Floating downward, I looked on the side. My eyes widened. It was the same Sharpie-marked words from my vision: **_PRECIOUS DNA, INJECT TO SUBJECT 12 IMMEDIATELY!_**

 _Aelita, I think I found out what they did with your blood,_ I gulped, or would have.

She started to tense up. _W-what did they do with it…?_

 _I think they modified it, but I don’t know what they will do. In my vision, he inserted it into a line. If they overheard, then they might do it differently,_ I looked up at my worried friends.

But that isn’t what happened. Instead, just like my vision had shown, the whitecoat walked over to my unconscious body, took one of the tubes running from it to the machines near my bed in one hand, and proceeded to unzip the bag with his other. The syringe was withdrawn, as the whitecoat slowly adopted an evil grin. Setting the bag on the floor near my bed, he then inserted the syringe into one end of the tube he was holding, making sure its entire contents had been squeezed out. Once he had finished, he recapped the tube, placed the now-empty syringe back into the bag, re-zipped it, and made his way toward the door he came in through, just as another whitecoat entered, carrying a similar bag in her left hand.

 _Oh, no!_ Jeremie grimaced, his entity’s entire face contorting with fear, as he raised his ghostly hands to his mouth. _What did they just inject into your IV, Cassidy?!_

As much as I could feel myself wanting to freak out as badly as Jeremie was, I tried my hardest to be brave. _I think that—that was… A-Aelita’s… B-But what it w-will do to me… I don’t know…_

That shocked everyone. William, Kiwi, Aelita, Sister, and Yumi gasped. Jeremie was seconds from biting his ghostly fingernails, even if I told him that he shouldn’t in the past. Odd’s eyes widened. Patrick’s, Kaitlyn’s, Sam’s, and Hunter’s ghostly jaws dropped. Even Ulrich, who would usually try to keep a straight face, couldn’t help but adopt a fearful expression.

 ** _What?!_** Sister, Yumi, Odd, William, Aelita, and Kaitlyn shrieked in unison.

Now, not even Sister’s promise of on-demand hugs could stop me from freaking out. And not in a good way. My mind went absolutely crazy, thinking of all of the possible reasons for why the whitecoats would inject me with Aelita’s DNA. And since my brain didn’t have the same limits as a spiritual entity, as it did when I was in my physical body, I found myself thinking about some options that never would have occurred to me, normally. Naturally, this made things even worse.

 _T-t-t-this… d-d-doesn’t… make any… s-s-sense!_ Hunter cried, his usual fear-driven stuttering getting worse as he tensed up. _A-a-are we j-j-just… g-g-guinea p-pigs?! A-are they g-gonna… i-i-inject all of u-us… with each other’s… D-D-DNA?!_

 ** _I don’t know!_** I shouted, increasingly freaking out.

If I could actually feel others’ touches, I would have felt Yumi wrap her ghostly arms around my entity, once more. _Whatever this is, we can’t let it get to us! What if this is just another one of their tests?! We all need to relax, otherwise the whitecoats are going to get really suspicious!_

 _T-that’s right!_ Odd attempted to sound confident. _T-they want us to go crazy… don’t they? So… we’ve just gotta… get the better of them! Yeah! Don’t let them get onto us!_

But the whitecoats wouldn’t let that happen. In fact, they had another interesting tactic in store for us. We soon found that out, when Kiwi suddenly yelped in pain, before looking around, almost as if he was looking around for the culprit. _Who did that?!_

 _Kiwi?!_ Odd instantly soared toward his diggity-dog, the tension within him reaching new heights. _What’s wrong? Did one of those whitecoats get you, too?_

The essence of **mi novio’s** pet looked down at his canine body, the only one lying in a bed without covers pulled over any part of his body, to find a whitecoat injecting a syringe into his neck, right below his collar.

 _Right there!_ He pointed with his essence’s nose, before growling with his entity’s teeth bared. _I’ll bet they’re making me part cat! Just like Hunter’s guinea pig theory!_

But Odd and the others didn’t have time to see where Kiwi was pointing. Why? Because things got even crazier. And I mean **really** crazy. Not even three seconds after Kiwi watched a whitecoat inject something into his body, a team of twelve whitecoats entered next, one walking over to each of our beds. I watched one whitecoat approach my bed, and gently pull the covers over my physical body back, before softly turning my body onto its belly, keeping my head to the side, so I could breathe. The others watched as the other whitecoats soon did the same with their own physical bodies.

In an instant, my physical back felt as though it was on fire after they turned my body over. As I began to react to this sensation, I happened to notice the others making similar expressions, some even squirming, suggesting they were feeling the same thing I was.

 _Ahhh!!_ Yumi frantically rubbed her ghostly hands across her entity’s back, thinking it would somehow stop the pain. _There’s something wrong with my back! What are they doing to us?!_

 _I-I wish I could tell you, Yumi!_ I sobbed, unable to handle my own discomfort.

She floated over to me, her entity’s face still showing the pain she could feel from her physical body, before trying to wrap her ghostly arms around my entity. _Don’t worry, Cassidy… we’re all here for you. We’re all going through the same thing! Hopefully it’ll all be over, soon!_

 _I hope so…_ I whimpered, scared for everyone as well as myself.

Yumi pulled herself back, while still keeping her ghostly arms wrapped around me, in order to try and give me a comforting grin, despite the pain she found her physical body in. However, as she looked at my entity’s face, her own eyes were immediately drawn to something strange that had appeared in my hair, and she let out a gasp.

 _What is it?!_ I moaned, my spiritual eyes squeezed shut.

 _Don’t look now,_ Yumi croaked, _but Aelita’s DNA is doing something to your hair…!_

I opened them slightly, my entity shivering. _Y-Yumi?_

Now Jeremie’s curiosity had been piqued, and he floated over next to Yumi, to get a better look. A look of pure surprise overtook his entity’s face, when he noticed my ghostly hair, as well. _Cassidy… it would seem as though… part of your hair… has changed… color._

 _What Einstein means to say,_ **mi novio** floated closer, his entity’s face also pain-stricken, _is that you’ve got a pink highlight, Cat Girl!_

My eyes widened as they ever-so-slightly looked up. There it was, a pink strand taking precedence on my bangs, wrapping nearly around my entity’s head, like a streak. My essence’s jaw dropped. Oh, holy…

 _What… the… hell?!_ Kaitlyn’s ghostly eyes widened, as she looked at my new, as **mi novio** so conveniently put it, **pink highlight.** _Why did they do this to you?!_

Hunter floated over, looking slightly surprised, albeit filled with pain, as well. _Would you… be i-i-insulted i-if I… s-said the pink a-a-actually… went well with… y-your… n-n-natural brown h-hair…?_

Reaction or not, I screamed in terror. Having a natural strand of pink hair freaked me out like literally nothing else. It was like Hunter had suggested; I felt like a guinea pig. Why had they done this to me?! What would they gain by doing this?! Did they have it out for me?! I figured they had seen the monster, which is why they had kidnapped us in the first place, but was this their way of getting back at me, for something I had done, but didn’t know what?! Could someone throw me a bone, for crying out loud?!

Without even waiting for an answer, Hunter tensed up even further, gritting his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut, placing his ghostly hands over his entity’s ears, and nearly compacting his spiritual body into a ball, as he heard me scream.

Aelita tensed up even more, as well, only she didn’t try to cover her ghostly ears; she merely grimaced. She couldn’t understand the reasoning behind my pink strand of hair, either. She knew it must have come from her body, but what she wanted to know, like me, was why they did it in the first place.

Without a second thought, she floated over toward me as fast as she could, and wrapped her ghostly arms around me, wishing she could find my “off” button.

Slowly, her **hug** worked. _What—how—why me?!_ I cried. _I don’t know what I did to deserve this!_

 _None of us do,_ she tried to reassure me. _But it’s not the end of the world. We’ll find out what happened, and do what we can to take care of it. I know it seems really crazy now, but we’ll get through it, just like we always have._

 _Don’t look now, but I think they’re saying something,_ Ulrich pointed his ghostly finger downward.

Indeed, standing around my unconscious body were two whitecoats. The one that had turned my body onto its belly was talking to another, which just so happened to be the **other** whitecoat I was starting to hate.

“Looks like Miss McGuire’s body is adapting perfectly to the DNA… she’ll be so happy to be little Miss Schaeffer’s sister…” Mandy smirked evilly.

That did it. It was the last part of her sentence that really got Aelita and I. Aelita for being the unwitting and unwilling donor, and me for being the unwilling test subject. Remember how I said that I was **starting** to hate Mandy? That last comment of hers just upgraded that. Now I **really** hated her.

Looking over at Aelita, her face was nearly frozen in shock, as if she’d seen a trio of ghosts, who then proceeded to kill me, Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd in cold blood right in front of her. I couldn’t help but feel nearly similar, and it brought things back around to that question, once again: **why?**

I watched Einstein’s pink girlfriend cover her entity’s mouth with her ghostly hands, too afraid to even say anything that resembled human speech. For my part, my jaw had dropped, almost to my chest, and I was afraid it was going to detach itself from my mouth.

And my friends weren’t faring much better, either.

 _Did we just hear what we think we just heard?!_ Odd looked at me as though I might explode from his mere glance.

 _I—A-Aelita’s— **WHAT?!**_ Jeremie incredulously shouted, hoping against all hope his entity’s eyes and ears were playing tricks on him.

Yumi’s entity’s eyes had metaphorically enlarged themselves to the size of shot-puts, as she brought her clenched, ghostly fists up near her entity’s mouth.

 _Why are they… doing this to you?!_ she squeaked out.

Ulrich and William had paled, as well, if such a thing were possible during an out-of-body experience.

I tried to make a noise, but my mind had figuratively jammed itself, thanks to all the fear, so I couldn’t find the will to articulate. For all intents and purposes, I had turned into a female stunned Piglet from the time they tried to find Christopher Robin.

For a moment, it seemed almost as though Sister had been taken over by Aelita’s father once more, as she was nearly as starstruck as I was, babbling incoherently with her entity’s eyes wide open, and her essence’s fingers pressed flat against her ghostly cheeks, bookending her entity’s gaping mouth.

Of course, this only lasted for about fifteen seconds, before she suddenly found the will to become coherent again, and slowly made her way over to me. When she got there, she wrapped her essence’s arms around my entity, as we still hadn’t gotten the memo that we couldn’t feel those things; of course, that implied that we cared about that in the first place.

 _Ohhhh… dear sister…!_ she managed to speak, nearly as distraught as I was. _I’m so sorry…! I know how scary this must be for you!_

But I couldn’t answer her right away; my mind still wouldn’t let my entity’s mouth form words that sounded anything like English. All I could manage to do was undulate sounds and squeaks. Finally, the block dissolved, and I started crying again.

With my composure completely shattered, it wasn’t long before Aelita started crying as well, leading Yumi to slowly float over to her, and wrap her essence’s arms around the pink-haired girl’s entity in a comforting manner, cooing softly to her. Sister soon started doing the same, in an attempt to comfort me, as well. This was all way too much for both of us.

Even Kiwi was reacting to Aelita’s and my terrified cries, but for a different reason, as he covered his head with his front paws, leaning forward and gritting his teeth. His reason was that something was happening within his physical body, as a result of the whitecoat’s injection; however, it went unnoticed, as everyone else was either thinking about our current situation, or paying attention to Aelita or I, trying to calm and comfort us. Even Odd didn’t pay him any mind, assuming he was reacting that way because of what had happened to myself and my former first roommate.

Nearby, Jeremie was still incredibly confused, to say the least. He was still trying to figure out what the point was of injecting Aelita’s DNA into me, and if there was any real motives behind it, aside from the classic all-purpose, **we just wanted to make sure it would work.**

Odd tried to be strong for me, but found it incredibly difficult, if not impossible.

While most of us were saddened or confused by this, Kaitlyn was too busy clenching both of her essence’s fists, gritting her entity’s teeth, positively fuming at Mandy’s and the other whitecoats’ actions. Like Einstein, she didn’t know what it all meant, but at that moment, she wished her body could have awakened, that way she would’ve had a chance to personally give each of them a piece of her mind, for as long as she could get away with it.

 _That’s it. When I wake up, I’m going to kick their **asses**!_ she growled. _They’re **not** gonna mess with two of **my** friends, and get away with it!_

For Ulrich, it didn’t take very long for him to finally sum up enough courage to want to do the same. His entity’s eyebrows slowly lowered, as a scowl soon took over its face. Floating over to Kaitlyn, he gave her an understanding nod, showing her that he’d love to join her, if the moment presented itself. No way was he going to let them get away with what they did to Aelita and me, either.

Their party soon got another member, in the form of Patrick, as he floated over to join the two. His entity’s face bore a look similar to Ulrich’s, which was all the brown-haired boy and Kaitlyn needed to know, to be sure he was with them.

William floated over toward Aelita and me, gently wrapping one of his essence’s arms around each of our entities, comforting us warmly, moments before shooting the resistance a determined nod, showing them he was on their side, as well.

I was shaking beyond my own control. Never before had I ever experienced anything like this. Heck, what I was experiencing right now was nothing I had ever experienced before, so it was like two new experiences compounded together. The end result left me quite broken, hoping I could find all of the pieces within the five-hour time period I was given, before my body would wake up.

In the midst of all this, Jeremie slowly found the strength for something else. Even though the situation seemed bleak, something drove him to keep going, anyway. It was the same drive that kept him fighting against XANA, no matter how many times everyone, especially Aelita and me, kept pushing him to take a break. He felt that his girlfriend and I needed a boost as well, and he knew exactly how to give it to us.

 _Girls, listen,_ he began. _I know this situation seems really bleak, and that our conditions couldn’t possibly get worse, but they have to get worse, before they can get better. And I feel as though these are at their worst, meaning that things can only get better from here. Yes, Cassidy, you have a few strands of pink hair, just like Aelita, but that shouldn’t be the end of the world. Hasn’t XANA done worse things to you, especially? And what about our backs? Yes, they’re in a lot of pain right now, but hasn’t XANA done even crazier things to us? Maybe this is a sort of opportunity. Something that can help us, even though we only think of it as a hindrance, right now. What if this is our chance to do something even better? We don’t have to sit back, or in our cases, lie back, and let these crazy trials and surgeries be the end of our worlds. We’ve been through worse situations than these._

_Sure, XANA’s never tried to make our backs flare up like this, but can you remember all of the other things he’s done to us, that threatened to rip us apart, yet failed miserably? He’s sent flocks of crows after us. He’s run you all over with MegaTanks. He’s trapped you and Yumi on Lyoko without your digital DNA sequence codes. He’s tried to convince you and Yumi that your brains were experiencing cellular degeneration. He’s tied some of us up with vines. He’s kidnapped you, in order to force you to change the Supercomputer’s nuclear battery, before trying to kill you. He’s destroyed your psyche on countless occasions. And on some of them, you’ve actually contemplated stopping altogether, not going to Lyoko, and even avoiding the factory. But do you remember what happened? We all helped you through it, and you came back, even better than ever. The point I’m trying to get across is, no matter what crazy things we’ve been through, no matter what trials we’ve come through, no matter what hardships we’ve overcome, we’ve always bounced back. XANA can’t tear us apart, and neither will a bunch of whitecoats! Do you understand?_

At nearly the same time Jeremie finished his pep talk, the strange feelings from Kiwi’s physical body began to subside, and the dog’s entity’s eyes suddenly popped open, giving us the impression that Einstein cheered him up, as well. He looked around, like he was lost, before pulling his essence’s front paws off from its head, and slowly floating over to our entities.

 _Uh… yeah!_ he tried to reason with Aelita and I. _Besides, I don’t like it when you all are sad… It makes me want to howl mournfully at the moon. You know what the two of you need? A nice, soft belly rub! That always helps me, whenever I’m sad! Actually, I could go for one, right now, too!_

Slowly, Einstein’s speech, and **mi novio’s** diggity dog’s words, melted into my psyche. I took an unnecessary deep breath, my entity calming down, an amused smirk upon my essence’s features, my ghostly hand gently rubbing his spirit’s belly. _Th-thanks… Jeremie and Kiwi…_

Aelita soon calmed down as well, feeling the effects of her boyfriend’s pep talk, and Kiwi’s comment, as well. She reached up to rub her essence’s eyes, even though no tears had actually fallen the entire time.

 _You’re right,_ she remarked, her entity’s mouth slowly curving upward. _XANA could never break us apart. So why should we let these whitecoats try to break us?_

 _They can’t break us,_ Yumi agreed, _especially when we know everything they’re capable of._

 _Yeah!_ Odd exclaimed, his entity feeling stronger. _It’ll take more than some silly back pain to take down Odd the Magnificent!_

That made me laugh, something I definitely needed. _Odd…_

Odd turned to look at me. _Okay, okay! It can’t bring down Cassidy the Magnificent Cat Girl, either!_

I burst out laughing even harder at his addition, which even started Sister laughing, as well. The two of us remained in our hugging position as we cackled, releasing all of the tension and distress we had built up.

Aelita giggled a bit as well, but something down below grabbed her attention once more, nearly canceling out most of the calming effect of Jeremie’s speech. _Look! Something’s growing out of our backs! It looks like… wings!_

Yumi let out a gasp, bringing her essence’s hands up by her entity’s face, as she looked down at her body. Sure enough, a few black-colored feathers had started to pop out of her back, like small crystals against her bare skin, almost befitting her former wardrobe choice. While she knew it was coming, just like I did, it didn’t surprise her any less.

Aelita soon looked down at her own body, and surprise overtook her essence’s features, when she saw the feathers that were slowly growing out of her own back. They were pink, looking like they would be quite soft to touch—we would have been flabbergasted if they hadn’t been—but what was even more interesting, was that they looked almost vibrant pink, which made them look almost like her wings on Lyoko.

Out of my own sprung tri-colored feathers, a weird combination of pink, purple, and brown, almost like my own in the virtual world. I wasn’t sure whether to be freaked out, or filled with admiration, as I looked at them.

Jeremie noticed a few feathers had appeared on his back, slowly starting to grow out, like Aelita’s, Yumi’s, and my own. His reminded me of a blue jay’s wings, as they were blue and black, with white tips. I was sure his wings would look almost like a noble’s cape, once they had finished growing.

Looking down at himself, Ulrich watched brown feathers slowly make their way out of his bare back, with other shades, both light and dark, slowly emerging soon after. From the way they looked, they almost looked like they could be used as camouflage, once they had grown. He didn’t realize this at first, but I could tell he was somewhat amazed by them, anyway.

From Sam’s bare back sprouted russet-colored feathers, decorated with black freckle-like spots, which slowly pushed their way out. Her face was a combination of surprise and amazement, even though I couldn’t help but think of a butterfly’s wings, as I watched them slowly emerge.

As **mi novio** watched his own body, feathers with an interesting color scheme slowly began to pop out of his bare back; a few white feathers, along with a few purple feathers—those being of two different shades of purple—both with golden tips. They, too, looked an awful lot like the color scheme of his old ninja-cat outfit. And, as usual, Odd was more amazed than surprised, when I looked at him.

Speaking of Odd, his dog was sprouting wings of his own. Gray feathers grew from Kiwi’s shoulder blades, as his jaw dropped.

Kaitlyn gasped as she watched little hot, neon pink feathers slowly emerge from her bare skin, marking yet another interesting color contrast. As they slowly continued to grow, she could also see black leopard spots on a few of the small feathers. Something about it told me that hers might turn into quite an interesting array, once they grew out fully.

On the other end of the spectrum, Patrick’s eyes widened at seeing raven-hued feathers popping out of his back. He realized these would probably go well with the jacket he usually wore, but the thought of having black wings wasn’t any less surprising.

 **Mi ex novio** found his bare back was slowly sprouting midnight blue wings, and he was taking it about as well as Odd did his—he actually thought they were pretty cool. They weren’t his favorite color, but to him, he knew they were still going to look epic, regardless.

Even though Hunter had mostly come to grips with his current state, I watched his eyes widen, as he watched green feathers slowly poke their way through his bare back, before black ones followed after. As his eyes saw the green, it calmed him slightly, giving him the thought that maybe this won’t be as bad as he thought.

Next was Sister. Her essence’s hands went up to her entity’s chin once more, as she beheld the yellow feathers that slowly made their way out of her bare back, and pink feathers began popping out afterward. That would make quite an interesting color scheme, and probably fit her quite well, considering how she used to dress.

 _Cassidy,_ Jeremie looked at me, feeling the need to state the obvious, _I think you were right, about the whitecoats putting avian DNA into our bodies..._

I metaphorically gulped. _I—_  But I couldn’t say anything. All I wanted to do was rehearse my vowels, as the shock still had a pretty tight grip on me. But that was enough to tell Jeremie what he wanted to know, anyway.

Thankfully Yumi still had her essence’s arms wrapped around me. _It’s okay, Cassidy. We’re all quite surprised, just like you. But don’t worry. Maybe this will be the last experiment the whitecoats do to us, before Max and her flock save us._

And she couldn’t have been more right—just as she said that, Jeb, Georgina, Ari, and seven others I remember reading from the books rushed in. That’s when It became a madhouse. Nearly every single whitecoat in the entire School came rushing in, trying to stop Max, her flock, and the others from taking our bodies. They punched, kicked, and found other ways of trying to attack, but Max and the others were ready. A few kicks and punches went through, but most were blocked, and returned. Some of the whitecoats didn’t know what hit them.

Watching from above, Yumi and I were amazed to say the least. Max had knocked out two whitecoats within the first minute of her arrival, with Gasman and Fang each taking another three out of the picture. Ari even found himself knocking out a couple whitecoats, with Jeb joining him to knock out a third.

“Angel! Take the smallest victim you can find and get him or her out!” Max ordered.

Nodding dutifully, the tousle-haired blonde girl unfurled her white wings and soared above. Soon, she dove in, wrapping Kiwi into her arms and zooming out of the room.

And if the fighting below us wasn’t crazy enough, we got another shock when, just as Angel took Kiwi from the room, Kiwi’s essence suddenly flew out of Odd’s entity’s arms, and phased through the ceiling, **mi novio’s** surprised eyes following him.

 ** _KIWI!_** he yelled. _No! Come back, my little diggity-dog!_

 _She must’ve taken him out of the School,_ Ulrich blinked. _You’ll be reunited with him soon, Odd. I’m sure she wouldn’t go too far with him._

“Gazzy, take out that one and take whoever you can carry!” the oldest of the flock yelled.

He nodded, giving an uppercut to the whitecoat that accosted him and racing toward Odd. He detangled my wildcard and rushed him out of the bigger room.

 _Told you,_ Ulrich smiled.

Before he could reply to his former roommate, Odd’s entity was suddenly flung backward, crying out in surprise as he phased through the wall.

Of course, I didn’t see or hear this, as I was still fixated on Max and her flock taking out the whitecoats like a small town throw down, while unhooking my friends’ bodies from the tubes, and carrying them away. Max had just finished punching out Mandy—to which I started to go nuts with joy—when she whirled around.

“Nudge!”

“Oh, look at this pink-haired girl, Max!” Nudge smiled. “She’s so pretty, so cute and cuddly, she looks like she’s such a beautiful girl, and her wings make her look even more beautiful! She’s just so adorable, I really can’t take my eyes off from her! Can you see her, Max? Isn’t she one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen?”

“Yes, Nudge, take her and go!” she growled.

Of course, my former first roommate wasn’t expecting Nudge to gush all that praise, as her entity heated up by several degrees, while finding herself at a loss for words. She’d never heard anyone talk about her like that, and especially not that highly of her, I could tell.

 _She’s a motor mouth,_ I deadpanned, giggling on the side.

 _Yes, well, uh…_ Aelita started to reply, _that’s very—WHAAA!!!_

Yep, you guessed it; before she could finish her sentence, if you could even call that a sentence, through the ceiling she flew, phasing through it as she went.

 ** _AELITA!!_** Jeremie cried.

 _Einstein, take a moment to relax. She’s free from the School now,_ Yumi soothed.

I could feel Einstein calm down just a bit, as he looked over at Yumi. _So, by the looks of things, once a member of the flock takes one of our bodies, our spiritual entities are automatically taken with them, that way we stay within an optimal distance?_

 _Sounds like it,_ I nodded.

And soon I’d be the lucky budding bird-girl that would get the chance to test that theory, as Jeb ran over to my body, unhooked the tubes and wires, pulled me out of the bed, and carried me out of the room. Sure enough, I felt an invisible pair of hands wrap themselves around my entity, before jerking me backward through the wall, which I phased through, surprising the others.

“Sorry we couldn’t get to you in time to stop this, Cassidy. I know you can’t hear me, but we’re going to get you to Dr. Martinez’s place. Don’t worry, when you wake up, all your friends will be there, too, safe and sound,” he said to me.

Thanks, Jeb. Glad to see which team you are on, I smiled.

“I think we can get you waking up as soon as we get you in the van. Just hang in there.”

I calmed down as I flew along with my body, continuing to smile as I watched Jeb rush me through the School’s hallways, toward the exit. Once he got through the doors, there was a van waiting outside, just as he had said.

I guessed in a way, Plan 120’s unexpected person was not with Sam, but with _Jeb_.

“Georgina will carry Hunter out. She’s been on our side the whole time.”

I grinned as I heard this. There was something about Georgina that just gave me that sort of feeling. While I thought her kindness and gentleness was just a side-effect at first, I couldn’t help but feel this tiny inkling that there was more to it than that. I was glad I was right. I wonder if Hunter noticed it, too.

 _Cat Girl!_ Odd cried, seeing me come into the van. _Oh, am I so glad to see you! Uh… both of you!_

 _Me, too, Odd. The others are on their way. Georgina was on our side. Can you believe it?!_ I giggled.

 _She was?!_ Odd interjected, quite surprised to hear that. _She must be a really good actress! I couldn’t see that for miles!_

 _No wonder she was gone when Jeremie talked to me. She was waiting for Max and her flock,_ I smiled.

 _That’s wonderful that she was fighting for us,_ Aelita smiled. _But I wonder who told the whitecoats what was going on?_

 _My best culprits are Mandy or Reilly. Both are mean,_ I growled, remembering the shunt.

 _That wouldn’t surprise me,_ Kiwi snarled. _I’d love to sink my teeth into both of their shoes!_

 _And then pee on them?_ I asked, a smile growing on my face.

He let out a bark of agreement, panting a bit. _You got it!_

That got Aelita giggling, as she covered her entity’s mouth with her essence’s hand. Kiwi was too cute, especially when she could hear him talk, too.

The three of us soon heard wings coming closer, moments before Iggy landed, carrying Jeremie with him. Shortly after that, we heard the panicked cries of Einstein’s essence, before it landed next to us, above the van.

 _Jeremie!_ my former first roommate rejoiced. _I’m glad you’re okay!_

Jeremie wrapped his essence’s arms as tightly as he could around Aelita’s entity, as if he was overjoyed to see her, as well. _Oh, Aelita! I wasn’t sure what had happened to you!_

Looking over at me, he asked, _Is Iggy blind?_

 _Yep. Accident when he was here at the School. He was having an eye procedure done to improve his night vision, and something went wrong. It’s complicated to say the least,_ I answered.

Soon after, the sound of flapping wings filled our entity’s ears, as Max and Fang soon landed by the van, Max carrying Yumi, while Fang carried Ulrich. The two gently placed their respective captures into the vehicle, shortly before a masculine and feminine scream filled the air. Yumi’s and Ulrich’s essences phased through the front entrance of the School, before coming to a stop above the vehicle, next to the rest of us.

 _Hi, Lovebirds!_ Odd smiled.

The two dusted each other’s essences off, feeling their entities heat up at this greeting, before turning to face the rest of us.

 _Odd!_ Ulrich exclaimed. _Boy, am I glad to see you!_

 _I told you they’d be waiting for us,_ Yumi reminded him.

And no sooner had Yumi finished her sentence, then more footsteps arose, followed by another scream. Georgina rushed through the doors of the School, carrying Hunter in her arms, before gently placing him within the vehicle, moments before his essence phased through the School’s entrance, coming to a stop near the rest of us. He looked quite out of breath, even though he didn’t need to breathe.

 _Could we… stop moving for a minute…_ he breathed. _All this… moving around is gonna… give me an… overload..._

 _She can’t hear us,_ Jeremie informed him.

He looked over at Einstein. _Yeah… good point… I just need a minute… to calm down… before we start moving again..._

 _Who’s left?_ Aelita asked.

 _Just… Sissi, William, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and Sam,_ Hunter replied, glancing into the air as if he was thinking.

“I have to get Sissi, Hunter, sweetie.” Georgina said, giving him a gentle kiss on his body’s temple, then repeating the same gesture on my own before rushing back into the School.

Right after she did that, I felt a gentle feeling of warmth just cuddle my essence, like someone was giving me a hug. I could see Hunter feeling something similar, as a smile appeared on his entity’s face.

 _She’s so wonderful,_ he remarked, almost sounding dreamy, as though that was all it took to calm him down. _I just hope we’ll see her again, after this is all over._

 _And I’m sure you will, Hunter,_ Aelita reassured.

He grinned at her in reply, just as Ari came barreling out of the School’s double-door entrance, Kaitlyn, Patrick, William, and Sam’s bodies under his arms. As he brought them up to the vehicle, and gently set each one inside, four more screams filled the air, as each person’s essence phased through the School’s doors, one at a time, before landing with the rest of us.

 _Kaitlyn! Patrick!_ Jeremie smiled, relieved at seeing his cousins.

 _Hold the pepper and eat the candle,_ Patrick remarked, looking as though his sudden trip through multiple walls had left him in quite a daze.

Even I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at that. It sounded almost like the kind of non-sequitur I would say, if I was in his position.

 _Kaitlyn, what happened to him?_ Einstein cried, worried that his male cousin had gone nuts.

She giggled at that. _Don’t worry, cuz. He’s just not used to phasing through so many walls at once. He’ll be fine, by the time his body wakes up._

Jeremie took a deep breath, probably a force of habit. _That’s a relief._

Next, I looked over at Sam, who looked nearly as frazzled as Hunter did, after Georgina carried him out.

 _Odd, does this sort of thing happen to you **all** the time?!_ she asked my wildcard, her former love interest.

 _Weeeeell… only sometimes,_ Odd replied. _Every other time, it’s a lot weirder._

We all waited a few more minutes, getting slightly worried about why Georgina was taking so long, when she finally burst through the School’s double-doors, carrying Sister. Relief spread to all of our entities’ faces, as Georgina gently placed her in the vehicle, between Hunter and I, just as a scream filled the air. Sister’s essence phased through the doors at nearly the exact moment Georgina set her down, and she soon landed with the rest of us, somewhat frazzled, before setting her entity’s eyes on me.

 _Sister!_ I cried out in happiness, wrapping my ghostly arms around her.

 _Oh, Sister!!_ She quickly returned the gesture, similarly overjoyed. _Oh, I thought I’d never see you or anyone else again!_

 _We’d fight tooth-and-nail for you, Sister, just like you all, minus William, Sam, and Hunter, fought for me._ Determination made my entity heat up with a different fire.

Sister’s entity’s face glowed with pride at my reply. I could tell she loved knowing that the others would look out for her, just like she would do for them. We were all one big, happy surrogate family in a way, and most of us knew it; I was sure Sam and Hunter would soon find this truth out for themselves, as well, when the time was right.

With every single one of our bodies in the vehicle, Max and her flock flew out of the School, before coming to a stop overhead, providing aerial cover for the vehicle that would carry us. Georgina looked over to Jeb, after taking a head count.

“Is that everyone, Jeb?” she asked him.

“Yes,” Jeb confirmed. “Reilly overheard their conversation after you brought Cassidy back from that wash. He quickly tipped Mandy off big time.”

“We should have been extra quiet, then,” Georgina lamented. “I was too busy trying to help Cassidy calm down, I almost didn’t think about it.”

Yumi clenched her essence’s fists, her entity’s eyebrows falling as she heard that. _That Reilly…! **UGH!** I can’t **believe** he ratted us out!_

 _He must’ve been butt-hurt that Cassidy showed him up!_ Ulrich growled, feeling just as angry as Yumi was.

 _Now I wish I had a scalpel,_ I snarled. _Or a black mamba!_

 _I can’t believe he eavesdropped on us like that._ Even Aelita was angry about that. _You’re right. A scalpel would really help._

 _At least Max and her flock didn’t let them get away with that,_ Jeremie noted, his entity’s eyebrows pointing downward as well. _Otherwise, he probably would’ve gotten much worse from all of us._

 _Yeah! I want to introduce him to the Schyphozoa!_ Odd agreed. _See how **he** likes it! _

While we all burned in our anger, Jeb pulled a case out of the vehicle. “They said the sedatives given to them would last for five hours. I think we can shorten this.”

Georgina looked at the case in his hand. “How are we going to do that?”

“I have something that would reverse the effects. It’ll make them a little woozy as they wake up. Georgina, I want you to drive. Ari’s taking the passenger seat,” he said, taking a vial and an empty syringe out of the case. “I’ll stay in the back to wake them up. Did you bring their clothes?”

Georgina nodded. “They’re in another case in the back. All freshly washed, just like them, and ready to go.”

“Great. Start the drive to Dr. Martinez’s. Max will lead the way from above,” Jeb ordered, filling the syringe, closest to me.

“On it,” she answered, closing the side door, before running around to the other side of the vehicle, opening the driver door, and hopping into the driver’s seat.

The engine soon turned over, knocking Yumi from her anger as her entity’s eyes widened, realizing what this meant.

 _They’re about to take off!_ she warned the rest of us, fear slowly overtaking her entity’s voice. _That means they’re about to pull us with them! We’d better hang onto something, **quickly!**_

 _How about our bodies?_ William suggested. _They are practically our anchors._

Her entity’s eyes returned to normal size. _You’re right. And they’re probably going to wake our bodies up, on the ride over to Dr. Martinez’s house._

No sooner had she said that, than I felt something sting my arm. I cried out in pain and surprise, putting my essence’s hand over my entity’s arm, in retaliation.

 _Cassidy?!_ Odd cried out, floating close to his body.

 _Don’t worry, Odd,_ Yumi gave his essence a calm, reassuring smile. _Jeb’s giving our bodies a sort of antidote, to get rid of the sedatives they gave us. We’re going to be waking up, sooner than we thought we were._

 _At least he isn't looking to play with my DNA,_ I muttered, still wincing.

Aelita nodded, giving my essence a comforting smile. _Jeb doesn’t seem like that kind of person to me._

 _That's true. I'm glad about that. It still stings right now,_ I tried to smile back at her.

She floated over to me, and tried to rub my essence’s back with her hand. _It’ll be okay. It probably will for a short time, but once you’re awake for a while, I’m sure the feeling will go away._

I nodded, moments before I felt another interesting feeling reverberate through me; it was the feeling of my consciousness pulling my essence back into my body. Even though I couldn’t see my own essence, I slowly began to disappear, causing Aelita’s entity’s eyes to widen momentarily, before they relaxed, accompanied by a soothing, disarming grin overtaking her entity’s face, once she realized what was going on. I watched everything around me slowly fade to black, all of my friends disappearing all around me, moments before the sensation slowly returned to every inch of my body, bit by bit, to the point where I no longer felt as weightless as I had. I could’ve easily compared it to getting devirtualized, but by Jeremie’s hands, rather than getting shot enough times by one of XANA’s monsters.

The next thing I knew, I began to feel every part of my body slowly coming back to life, as if I was just waking up after only four hours of sleep, bringing with it every single ounce of the fatigue and grogginess that you’d normally get if you did that. Of course, I knew I hadn’t been sleeping. After having an experience like that, you couldn’t possibly dismiss the entire thing as only “just a nightmare.”

It did leave me with a good feeling, though; it was great to know that Jeb and Georgina were on our side.


	10. Waking Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do however own our OC’s. We are also back to regular formatting.

A few seconds later, my eyes slowly opened, as if the muscles in my eyelids were pushing against small, invisible weights. At first, my vision was incredibly blurry, even with my glasses on, but I could make out a figure hovering over me, and I could feel something moving underneath me as if I was in a moving car of some sort. But I knew that I was in a van and that the blurry man in my sights had to be Jeb. He was certainly happy to see that I was awake.

“Hey, we’ve got a live one,” he commented, smiling warmly at me. “You okay, kiddo?”

“N-not really… Like c-crazy ran me over w-with a steamroller—or worse… a MegaTank,” I groaned.

Jeb chuckled. “Yeah, I understand. You’ll feel that way for a little while. It’s probably the serum I used still combatting the sedatives.”

“It's great to h-hear that G-Georgina was on our s-side…” I muttered.

“Huh?” That startled him, as he gave me a surprised look. “Who told you that?”

“You did…J-Jeb…” I replied, incredibly groggy.

The surprise on Jeb’s face slowly turned to confusion. “I don’t know how I could have told you that. You’ve been asleep for the past two hours. Maybe you dreamed it up?”

“N-no… You told me w-while you carried me…to this van…”

He shook his head. “You’ve been sedated, Cassidy. Even if I had told you that, you were asleep, so you couldn’t possibly have heard me say that to you. You’re still kinda half-awake, you know.”

“I kinda ov-oversaw you c-carry me…” I tried to reason with him, even though my groggy voice didn’t really carry as much force as I wanted it to.

His eyes widened. “Y-you what?!”

“Sa-saw you carry me… in the air… Was with friends… J-Jeremie sa-said something a-about a ‘c-corporeal distor-distort-distortion…’” My bigger vocabulary words came out at a sluggish pace.

“Are you absolutely sure you didn’t just dream the whole thing up?” Jeb wasn’t completely convinced. “I mean, maybe you had a feeling you were going to be saved, so your subconscious—”

“J-Jeb… T-they messed w-with A-Aelita’s D-DNA… T-t-they g-gave us w-w-wings… O-one of th-them me-messed with m-my hair… My e-entity purred…” I kept trying to reason with him, hoping one of those things would convince him entirely.

His eyes zoomed straight to my wings, which had grown to the point that they were slowly starting to poke their way out of my hospital gown. They widened when he looked at my hair, noticing a pink streak contrasting my usual brown. That’s when I could hear in his mind, _How could she possibly know that?!_

“H-had an out-of-b-bo-body ex-expe-experi-experience…” I tried to push the words out, feeling like I finally had him convinced.

Jeb was in disbelief, as his eyes returned to my face. “So, wait… you mean to tell me, that when the scientists put you to sleep and then started inserting avian DNA into your own, that you were somehow floating overhead, and saw the entire thing?”

“N-not alone… H-had friends…”

He looked out at the other eleven sleeping bodies. “A-all of you?!”

I nodded slowly. _Geez, even my coma’s grogginess was short._ “T-took a while… b-but all came…”

He lowered his head, before cradling it with his free hand, as it swayed back and forth. “Maybe that really shouldn’t surprise me… I mean, ten of you are the Lyoko Warriors, after all… you’ve had crazier experiences than this, I’m sure…”

“W-would r-read… t-table o-of contents… Bra-brain’s h-hazed…” I replied, feeling like I wanted to fall back to sleep, like most of my body still was.

He held up his hand, its palm facing me. “That’s okay. You can always tell me later. Besides, I’ve seen most of your gang’s exploits, just like the other scientists. That’s how we knew about most of you. Hunter and Samantha were the special cases, but Georgina told me everything Hunter told her, and Prisca told me all about Miss Knight so that filled in those blanks. You guys are getting quite a following, let me tell you.”

“G-great… C-cold…” I shivered, slowly and subconsciously crossing my arms in front of my body.

Jeb looked around, before grabbing a blanket, and wrapping it around me. “I understand. But it’ll be a lot warmer, once we get to Dr. Martinez’s house. Trust me.”

“Y-you and G-Ge-Georgina… m-mentioned—cl-clothes…” I looked him in the eyes.

He blinked, almost as if the surprise hadn’t worn off, yet. “O-oh yeah, they’re in the back, in a case. Georgina had them all washed. Do you want me to grab yours for you?”

“P-please…” I whimpered slightly. Sure, the blanket helped warm me up, but I was sure I’d feel a lot better, once I was dressed in my old outfit before Georgina put this hospital gown on me.

He nodded, and slowly crawled toward the back. “Sure. Let me get that for you.”

In a manner of a few moments, he slowly crawled into the back of the van, retrieved my clothes from the case, and slowly crawled back over to me, before holding them out. “Here you are.”

I attempted to get dressed on my own, but my body didn’t seem to want to cooperate with me. My arms didn’t want to go into the sleeves at first, and it took six tries before my legs would slide into my underwear, then my pants, let alone my socks. I eventually just stopped, with one arm half inside one of the sleeves on my shirt.

That was when Jeb bent down next to me. “Here, can I help?”

I nodded, feeling as tired as Odd when he came back from the factory with Brynja. “S-sorry…”

Jeb nodded, a smile slowly curving his mouth upward. “It’s okay. The sedatives are still wearing off. Do you want them over your hospital gown, or should I take it off, first?”

“O-off…”

He nodded, before he gently removed what clothing I had tried to put on, and undid my hospital gown. Slowly and gently, yet with slight haste, as he didn’t want me to freeze without any clothes on, he helped me into my outfit, one layer at a time.

Part of my groggy mind hoped my still-in-their-out-of-body-experience friends weren’t pervertedly enjoying the show. I always got dressed alone at Kadic. Even when I roomed with Aelita, I always waited until she went to the showers to change, or whenever I went with her, I’d change in the stall, after my shower. If I had to do it in our room, she’d have her back to me, sometimes even changing her clothes at the exact same time. I didn’t like anyone seeing me naked, except under special conditions.

First going for my underwear and bra, followed by my socks, pants, and then my shirt and shoes, Jeb had soon dressed me fully, before turning back to his original task of waking my still-sleeping friends. The case he had opened earlier lay next to where he sat as he dressed me, and another vial and syringe was pulled from it, as he got to work transferring the serum so he could wake his next target, Aelita.

It didn’t take long for him to fill another syringe, and he slowly crawled through the moving van, before landing on his hands and knees in front of my former first roommate.

“Be c-careful, sh-she g-got s-stung w-when they m-messed with her D-D-DNA…” I slowly cautioned him, still out of it.

He looked back at me. “Can you remember which arm?”

“R-Right… T-they b-band-bandaged it…” I pointed out.

Turning his gaze back on Aelita, he surveyed both of her arms, before finding the band-aid in question. “Right. I’ll just use her other arm, then. I hope she doesn’t get worried, or angry at me.”

“S-She understood… w-when y-you stung m-me t-to wake…” I tried to sound comforting, but my half-awake brain wouldn’t let me.

He nodded, as he slowly brought the syringe to Aelita’s unbandaged arm. “It’s okay. Just try to rest, okay? I’ll have your friends awake, soon.”

That was easier done than said because not long after he told me that, I covered my clothed body with the blanket and snuggled the seat. I didn’t fall back to sleep, but my brain still felt weird, regardless. I stared out the front window, seeing Max at the front of the vehicle in the air. Somehow, seeing her flying above us gave me a feeling of protection. She and her flock were watching out for us, and I loved the feeling that gave me.

A gentle sting in Aelita’s unbandaged arm soon brought my former first roommate around, as I imagined my other friends as still-asleep entities, watching hers slowly disappear, before her eyes began to open, back in her own body.

“H-hi, Aelita…” I uttered, a feeling of gladness taking over my emotions, even if my brain felt slow.

I soon heard her gentle and soothing, yet groggy, voice fill the van. “Oh… C… Cassidy? I-is that… you?”

“Yes, Ae-Aelita… It’s m-me…” I smiled slowly.

“I’m… glad you’re… alright,” she muttered, sounding happy, even if she was about as with it as I was. “It feels… strange… being back… in my… real body… again…”

Jeb made a grunt of surprise, as he looked at Aelita. “Ehh… you, too?!”

“T-told you, ‘Had friends…’” I nodded, gradually feeling my body respond to me.

He quickly looked over at me, looking apologetic. “Okay, I’m sorry I ever doubted you. I’ve never had a single subject who was sedated for experiments, yet somehow managed to remember the whole thing.”

Aelita slowly nodded. “It’s… true. Every single… one of us… saw e...everything.”

“Kiwi… talked,” I smiled, feeling like giggling. However, the rest of my body wasn’t ready for that just yet.

“T-to more than just you…?!” He looked over his shoulder at me.

“Yes… Kiwi, Sam… H-Hunter…” Aelita breathed.

Jeb shook his head in disbelief, letting out a confused chuckle as he covered his eyes and forehead with his hand. “Well, now I’ve seen everything…”

“H-help Aelita… g-get dressed… before she g-gets cold… please?” I asked him.

Lowering his hand, he looked at Aelita. “Do you want me to? Cassidy’s kinda chilly, and she’s worried you’re probably gonna get cold, too, if you’re not covered up.”

She nodded, slowly. “Yes… that’d be… nice…”

He added a nod of his own, before crawling into the back, once more, and retrieving her clothes from the case he had taken mine from, earlier. Once he had crawled back, he gently eased Aelita into a sitting position, before gently untying her hospital gown, and removing it. In nearly the same time as he had taken to clothe me, he had slowly and gently helped my former first roommate get dressed, as well.

After bringing Aelita a blanket just in case, he crawled back over to his case, before withdrawing another serum and syringe. The next sting happened to Jeremie, the blond genius’ body slowly opening its eyes a few seconds later.

“How do you f-feel?” I asked, my speech coming into normalcy.

“George fed Play-doh to the turtle…” he muttered, half-asleep.

That made me burst out laughing, proving to me that I was becoming more and more awake than I thought I had been. Aelita, while still mostly out of it, managed a few chuckles at her boyfriend’s expense, even though I was sure she would’ve joined me for a roaring laugh, had she been more with it.

A few seconds later, Jeb crawled over to Jeremie, the blond genius’ clothes in his hands, before he untied his hospital gown, took it off, and slowly and gently helped him into his regular clothes, not even giving his body the chance to cool off.

“Sure, Jeremie… Uncle George fed the turtle Play-doh…” I chuckled, still rolling with it.

“We were… all out of… the red kind…” Jeremie kept going, seeming completely oblivious. “...so he fed him… the blue kind… and I saw him, too…”

I couldn’t stop laughing at that. Last time we said something like that to him, he acted like we were from another planet. But not this time! He was still a stone’s throw away from the sandman.

Even Jeb found Jeremie’s half-asleep ramblings quite funny, letting out a bit of a laugh of his own, as he turned back to his case of serums and syringes.

With another loaded syringe, he crawled over to Yumi, giving her arm as gentle of a sting as he could, which slowly brought her body around, just seven seconds later.

“Yumi,” I smiled, slowly crawling up to her. “Are you okay?”

My geisha friend let out a slight moan, as she opened her eyes. “Uh… kinda… I feel like I’ve… slept in longer… than I wanted to…”

“It’ll be okay. We’re still in motion. Are the others doing okay?” I asked.

She tried to nod her head, which slowly moved up and down. “Yeah… they’re all doing great… they’re just waiting their turn… for Jeb to wake them up…”

This time, instead of Jeb, I gingerly helped her sit up and got her dressed, finding her outfit. “There you go, Yumi.”

Yumi’s mouth slowly curved upward into a grateful smile, before her eyes found that my body’s hair had the same streak of pink as my essence. “You’ve still got… that pink streak… in your hair…”

“I know…” I frowned slightly. “I wish they hadn’t messed with Aelita’s DNA.”

Yumi slowly wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm hug, even though her movements had gradually decreased, as Jeb returned to his case, to load up another syringe.

“Don’t… worry,” she began, seemingly awake enough to think, even if her speech was still haltingly slurred. “There’s much worse… things they could have… done to you. They could’ve… even combined others’ DNA… with mine… or Ulrich’s… or even Sissi’s…”

“True, but I’m glad they hadn’t… That female whitecoat who assigned me to the psycho who ratted us out… said I would be happy to be Aelita’s _sister_ ,” I blinked.

Jeb scratched his head. I could tell he was still quite surprised by the fact that we still knew everything that went on, but this was still somewhat unclear. “Tell me more.”

So, we did. We told him everything that had happened while our bodies were unconscious, during our “out-of-body experience.” Jeb listened, while working to wake Ulrich, Odd, Kiwi, William, and Sister, as Aelita and I explained how long it took before we saw each other’s essences, Jeremie’s explanation, Aelita’s DNA, one of the whitecoats’ fascination with my hair (and how my spirit reacted, to my chagrin), the comment about “what changes they had in store for me,” and how another random whitecoat injected Aelita’s DNA into my body, resulting in the pink streaks of hair that now made up my bangs, contrasting my natural brown hair quite obviously. Once he had awakened Sister, he was quite dumbfounded, to say the least.

“So, that’s every single thing they did to you, before Max and her flock burst in, and started fighting the whitecoats?” he asked, trying to wrap his brain around everything.

“Right up to that point,” Jeremie, now within his normal functions, nodded.

“I remember Nudge saying… some… wonderful things about me…” Aelita bashfully recalled, her cheeks gaining a bit of a rosy tint in the process.

“I guess it’s a bit too soon to call you ‘cute?’” I felt my cheeks heat up.

She turned to look at me, hers slowly becoming redder. “Well… umm…”

“Cassidy, be careful. You don’t want to overdo it,” Yumi warned, well with it by this point.

I turned to my former first roommate. “Sorry, Aelita. I—”

“Don’t worry about it, Cassidy.” She cut me off, closing her eyes with a disarming grin on her face. “I’m just not used to so much praise, all at once.”

“So, in a way, you’re just like me, too,” I blinked. “I still pass out at too much praise.”

“That’s right,” Ulrich remarked, having regained most of his bearings. “I still remember the day after the assembly, when Pricilla came up to you and started raving about how cool you were, in both of your Lyoko outfits. Odd and I had to carry you back to Lyoko HQ after that.”

“I still say that it wasn’t her fault. She thought I had most of my marbles back, when in reality, I didn’t,” I ascertained. “Most times, I still felt halfway close to reality.”

“You just don’t know how to be humble, like me!” Odd jumped in, quipping. “Trust me! When fans tell you how great you are, you gotta know the right way to do it!”

“I still don’t know the right way yet,” I giggled, glad to see that he was getting back his own motor control.

“If anything,” Jeremie added, “ _you_ could show Odd the true meaning of the word ‘humble,’ Cassidy.”

“Not likely, Einstein… We tried that once with a bet, and he blew it the next morning. And I still didn’t like being _roped into said bet and having to do the opposite of Odd_.” I gritted my teeth, turning to the guilty parties— _mi novio_ and Samurai.

Odd raised his hands defensively. “Hey, I wasn’t gonna let Ulrich drag me down alone, okay? Besides, I had to show him the real meaning of humility!”

“Like when you came out of the shower, the next morning?” Ulrich folded his arms, grinning malevolently at my wildcard. “Was that your ‘humility,' mister ‘Odd the Magnificent?’”

“Yeah!” _mi novio_ shot back. “Now if only _you_ had been humble enough to _agree_ with me, rather than listening to Einstein talk with Cat Girl on his cell phone!”

“Hey, Jeremie needed to be warned, but I realized that it was too late,” I blushed. “I tried to keep my visions out of the bathrooms.”

“You couldn’t have stopped me, anyway, Cat Girl!” Odd continued. “The door couldn’t stop me, and Ulrich here couldn’t stop me, either! Odd the Magnificent stops for nobody!”

A conniving smirk spread across my lips. “Oh…? Not even... _this_?” I crawled over to him, hearing Aelita giggle behind me, and planted my lips on his.

His eyes widened as my lips connected with his, before they slowly relaxed, along with the rest of his mostly-awake body. I knew that would get him. Always does.

Even Ulrich started laughing at the sight, falling backward onto the seat he was in. “Looks like Odd the Magnificent got stopped, after all!”

As Ulrich calmed down, Yumi suddenly began to get a mischievous grin on her face, which slowly softened into a calming smile, as she slid over toward her _novio._

“By the way, Ulrich,” she began, speaking in a soothing, calming tone, “I never told you how glad I was that we both got out of there alive.”

Ulrich slowly sat up, returning Yumi’s gaze, while his features contorted with confusion. “Uh… y-yeah, I-I’m glad we got out of there alive, too.”

“I almost thought I’d never see you in your body again,” Yumi leaned closer to him, slowly wrapping her arms around the boy, and pulling him into a warm snuggle, as her lips gently pressed against his, causing Samurai’s eyes to widen, and a blush to slowly filter through his cheeks. This only lasted a moment, however, as he began to return his geisha girlfriend’s embrace, just as she began to softly and soothingly rub his back, and I could tell it relaxed him just as much as I relaxed Odd, when I did that to him, during the premiere of his short film, _Mandibles and Purple Mauve._

Speaking of my wildcard, it was now _his_ turn to laugh himself silly, which he took with great pleasure, falling over on his seat just like Ulrich had done, clutching his stomach as he cackled. “FAAAANTASTIC!” he shouted.

Sister, in contrast to _mi novio,_ thought the whole display was quite adorable since she had long given up on becoming Samurai’s girlfriend, herself.

“Oh, that so beautiful!” she exclaimed with a warm smile of her own, clasping her hands together and interweaving her fingers.

“Maybe one day, you can experience the same thing, Sister,” I smiled softly at her. “I can feel it.”

Her grin got bigger, as she turned to look at me. “That would be wonderful! Do you know who the lucky guy is, dear sister?”

“Not yet, but my two lucky guesses are either William _or_ Hervé,” I replied.

She nodded, her excited smile not failing in the slightest. Whoever the lucky guy would be, I was sure she and he would be together for a good long time. Part of me knew how much Hervé thought of her, and the days leading up to XANA’s weakening further reinforced this. However, there was always the possibility that William would be a good fit for her as well, as I knew that not only had dating me changed him, but his time as a prisoner of XANA had also modified his personality. I knew both of them would make the right girl happy, regardless.

Nearby, Jeremie sat on the end of the seat nearest to the side window, looking out up into the sky at the members of Max’s flock.

“What a relief, that we’re finally out of the School,” he commented, relieved.

Jeb nodded in agreement as he sat at his case, filling another syringe with serum. “I’m glad we got to you in time. I’m only sorry we didn’t come any sooner than we did.”

“I’m sure we’ll find a way to adjust,” I muttered, still a bit frazzled by the thought of being “Aelita’s _sister_ ,” according to Mandy.

“You’ll have to,” Jeb replied. “Removing those wings will be an even crazier process than putting them on, but with the right clothes, nobody except the people you trust has to know you’ve got them.”

I’d deal with keeping them. After all, getting them in the first place was crazy enough; I didn’t even want to think about how crazy painful the removal procedure would be. “We’re going to have to explain this to Mr. Delmas, and who knows how he’ll take it. According to Jeremie, he didn’t take it too well when I had a vision in his office.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you might have to let me talk to him. If anything, I can try to soften the blow, but it’s not like you and your friends are any different with those wings than you were without them.”

“Plus, you weren’t involved in the kidnapping,” Aelita pointed out. “So you’re not an accessory.”

“That’s true. Worst-case scenario, we’ll have to work something out. But I doubt Jean-Pierre will kick you guys out of Kadic. Especially not since he knows everything you’ve been through, and will soon know what happened to you guys over these past two weeks.”

“True. I just feel—” I was going to say _responsible for everything even if I wasn’t involved_ , but fought my tongue against it, considering that Sister and Yumi would probably give me another speech about how I shouldn’t beat myself up for such things. “—traumatized by all that we’ve been through.”

Jeb nodded sympathetically. “Tell you what, when we get to Dr. Martinez’s, I’m sure Georgina will be more than happy to give you, and anyone else who wants one, another rubdown, relaxing massage, and invigorating bath.”

“Since we’re not being lured into a trap this time, yes. That would be perfect.” My eyes suddenly widened, feeling a pain in my neck, even if I never rubbed it there. “Ow…”

Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd gasped when they heard my reaction. Even Ulrich and Yumi, who had long since separated, were surprised by this.

“Cassidy, are you okay?” Jeremie queried, worriedly.

“Did someone get you?” Aelita asked, next.

“No… my neck just hurts from that whitecoat’s ambush,” I moaned, bringing my fingers up to caress it.

“Here,” Jeb jumped in, pulling a small container from the case he was working in, which looked like some sort of cream. “This’ll dull the pain until the spot heals up.”

He slowly untwisted the cap and removed it, before getting a small bit on his finger, and gently rubbing it all over the spot where it hurt.

“She really brought out the big guns. She even brought out the guy who sedated me to put me on the chopper,” I whimpered slightly.

Jeb nodded, before looking out at the others. “Do any of you guys want a little bit of this, too? It’ll soothe the spot where the scientists injected the sedative into you.”

Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Sister reacted positively to this suggestion, which led Jeb to place the syringe he held in his other hand back into his case, before crawling toward Sister, starting with her.

Kiwi yipped, suddenly clearing his throat. “And what am I, chopped liver snacks?!”

Odd’s eyes widened when he heard that. He knew it sounded familiar, but he was baffled by the fact that he still heard it, even though he was back in his body. It even caught Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, Aelita, Sister, and I off-guard.

“Hey Cat Girl,” his worried voice squeaked, “I thought Jeb woke us up! We’re not still dreaming, are we?!”

“N-not in the slightest… I felt the cold cream on my neck, and the sting before he applied it…” I replied, my mind moments from freaking out over trying to explain what we had just heard.

“Then…” Jeremie’s voice was shaky, “...did we just hear… Kiwi… talk to us?!”

“Yes, Einstein!” Kiwi grinned.

The blond genius brought his hands up, defensively, as he heard _mi novio’s_ dog actually reply to him like he had when we were all having our out-of-body experience. “But… but how?! And how do you know my nickname?!”

The puppy brought his hind leg up to scratch at a spot behind his ears. “The others called you that name so much, even around me, I learned it.”

Odd’s jaw dropped, moments before his open mouth curved at the edges. “Am I really… then… that’s _fantastic!_ All my training methods finally _did_ pay off! _Kiwi’s talking!_ ”

“No, I don’t think that was you at all, Odd,” Jeremie gently burst his bubble. “Something must’ve happened to him when the rest of us had our wing surgery.”

“Wait… The whitecoats had injected Kiwi with something,” Aelita interjected, suddenly remembering the dog’s reactions when the whitecoats infused me with her DNA, and Kiwi with something else.

“And it hurt…” Kiwi whined.

“You’re right!” Jeremie looked at his girlfriend with amazement at her point. “Both you and Odd had samples of your blood taken, and moments later, Cassidy and Kiwi were injected with something. We know Cassidy got a sample of your DNA, but what do you think they injected into Kiwi?”

“Maybe he got injected with the DNA of some kind of talking poodle!” Odd guessed, slowly grinning at his own suggestion.

I fell backward against my seat, laughing my head off. He got me good.

“Sure, Odd the talking poodle,” Ulrich teased. “Now Kiwi will eat like a horse, and somehow still stay a scrawny little dog!”

“Hey! I am _not_ scrawny! I’m svelte!” This time, that line wasn’t said by _mi novio_. Instead, it was Kiwi.

The mischievous smile instantly vanished from Ulrich’s face, as surprise washed over him. “Da—da—da—wha…?”

That sneak attack from my wildcard’s diggity-dog made me burst out laughing even harder. I even clutched my sides, it was so funny.

Even Jeb chuckled at that. “I didn’t see whose DNA they injected into your dog, but you can definitely tell he’s yours, Odd.”

“That’s right!” Odd beamed, raising Kiwi up to eye-level. “That’s my diggity-dog! Even _he_ knows that we’re svelte!”

In reply, the literal bird-dog licked his face lovingly. “Or _esbelto/esbelta,_ right, Cassidy?”

I nodded, still in a fit of cackles. “ _E-Esbelta_ is f-for the girls…”

“He’s even got your knowledge of Spanish as well,” Jeb pointed out. “Fitting, since he used to talk to you telepathically, all the time.”

“I know. She was always using it somewhere,” Jeremie smiled. “She taught all of us, except for Sam and Hunter, how _hablar español_ , so it’s only natural that Kiwi picked it up, too.”

“Sister has a long way to go, still,” I noted, taking in a deep breath, stopping my laughing fit. “I was impressed that Patrick picked it up fast and learned more without me.”

Sister nodded at this. “But I’m getting better at it, thanks to you, dear sister. Soon I’ll be able to put sentences together!”

“Yep. And your conjugation is slowly improving, too,” I grinned.

Moments after Sister had answered me, Jeb had softly rubbed some of the cream on the injection site on her neck, before crawling toward Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Jeremie, Aelita, and then Kiwi, repeating the process for each. Once he had finished with this, he crawled back to his case, withdrew the syringe he had filled earlier, and crawled over to Hunter, first gently injecting him, before softly and slowly rubbing some cream on both the spot he poked and the spot the whitecoats had poked, earlier.

In a manner of several seconds, Hunter’s eyes slowly opened.

“Uhh…” he groaned, sleepily. “I feel like I’ve… only had three… hours of sleep… hey, Jeb…”

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Hunter,” Jeb grinned.

“Great to see you, Hunter,” I smiled.

His mouth slowly curved into a grin, as he heard my voice. “Thanks… Cassidy… it’s great to… see you, too… Man, that was… crazy…”

“Very wild ride, I have to admit,” William nodded.

“You can… say that again…” Hunter mumbled, as I watched Ulrich crawl over toward him, before instinctively creeping into the back, getting Hunter’s clothes out of the case, and easing back up to the front.

“Here, Hunter,” Ulrich commented, as he began to gently untie his hospital gown, “let’s get you dressed. Don’t want you freezing in nothing but a hospital gown.”

“Yeah…” he agreed, slowly extending his arms, as Ulrich took off the gown. “I’m already… feeling kinda cold… but I haven’t… shivered yet…”

“Trust me, Hunter. You do not want to end up with my stature…” I felt my cheeks heat up.

I could tell he looked confused by what I had said, whether that was because he was still quite out of it, or because he really didn’t understand what I meant, while Ulrich slid on his underwear and socks. “Huh…? What do you… mean by… that?”

“I get called scrawny or skinny, too,” I said, turning my head to avoid seeing anything that would call for a breakdown.

“But you’re _not_ scrawny, Cat Girl!” Odd interjected. “Like Kiwi and me, you’re _svelte!_ Or _esbelta!_ ”

“That’s true,” Kiwi smirked.

Hunter slowly nodded, as Ulrich slowly slipped his black shirt, which was emblazoned with a glowing green power light logo, over his head. “It’s okay… I’m pretty… skinny, too… but I’m not ashamed… of it.”

“Rosa gives me extra portions,” I muttered. “I just want to be treated like the rest of the student body… Not as though I’m privileged to the point of spoiling. I felt hot under the collar when Mrs. Hertz gave me extra credit when I correctly pointed out the anatomy of a horse. I’m just a girl who loves them.”

“At least she gives you extra food,” Ulrich quipped, slowly helping Hunter into his khaki cargo pants, one leg at a time. “Have you seen how Odd has to practically sing for his extra helpings?”

“And you’re quite knowledgeable on that subject, you have to admit,” Jeremie added. “Not many people know as much about horses as you do, Cassidy.”

“I understand both stances, but sometimes, I wish I wasn’t treated so special like that. I mean, I love having a hearty meal as much as Odd does, but sometimes I want just a tiny portion. Something to keep me going throughout the day, but I think Yolanda gave Rosa my health record,” I sighed.

“If that’s the case,” Jeremie replied, “then maybe Yolanda sees something in you, and wants to try and help you. I don’t think she’d ask Rosa to give you special treatment if you were merely five pounds underweight.”

“I guess I’ll have to check with her when I get back to Kadic,” I sighed, but then blinked, realizing something. “Or maybe Jeb could check when I get to a bathroom scale.”

“Dr. Martinez has one in her house,” Jeb pointed out. “You can weigh yourself before Georgina bathes you.”

“True. I just have forgotten how old I am. That coma messed my clocks up,” I shook my head.

Suddenly, Jeremie’s eyes widened, and I could tell he was thinking about that very subject. “Oh, no! That’s right! While you were out, you slept right through your birthday! Oh, in all of our mourning about your coma, then excitement over you waking up, and the gigantic mess that happened after that, we must’ve completely forgot!”

“So where would that place me?” I blinked. “My last birthday we celebrated was my fourteenth.”

“At fifteen and five months,” Aelita replied.

“So, why don’t we celebrate it, anyway?” Odd jumped in, getting excited at the thought. “When we get to Dr. Martinez’s house, let Georgina give you an extra long rub, massage, bath, and whatever else you like. We’ll pick up a cake, and everything!”

“That would be nice, Odd,” I smiled at the prospect. “Plus, I think those two gifts Mrs. Mayer and Mrs. Hertz gave me were their way of saying Happy Birthday.”

 _At least they’re not trying to get me into the tub,_ I could hear Hunter think, as he grinned, Ulrich tying the boy’s shoes, after having helped him into his jacket. “Yeah… that’d be great… we totally should. But I wonder what… we’d do for… presents…”

“Let my friends figure that out, Hunter. You’ve known me for a week and about two or three days. Not exactly enough time to get all my personality facets,” I nodded. “But if you want to when you get with it, then let Yumi, Aelita, Odd, or any one of _mis amigos_ help you out. They know me better, and I trust them to make their own decisions on what they want to get me.”

My other friends voiced their agreement.

“That’d be a great idea!” Odd turned to look at me. “Just stick with Yumi, Ulrich, and I, Hunter. We’ll help you pick something out that Cat Girl’s gonna love!”

Hunter nodded, his smile slowly getting bigger. “Yeah, that… would be a… great idea… I think I’ve… still got some… cash on me… so that’d be great.”

“I’ll go, too!” Sister jumped in. “Thanks to the monster, I think I know exactly what I’ll get my sister.”

She then turned to Hunter. “And don’t worry, Hunter, dear. If you’re not awake enough by that time, I’m sure Georgina can help you with that, or I can.

Hunter slowly gritted his teeth, as he heard Sister reply. “Um… yeah, we’ll… have to… see about that…”

“I’m just glad that we can celebrate something long overdue,” I giggled.

“I agree,” Jeremie added, letting out a bit of a chuckle at Hunter’s and Sister’s little routine. “Especially since we didn’t get the chance to do it, initially.”

“I think that realizing ‘Oh, it’s Cassidy’s birthday—Oh… wait… she’s still in her coma’ would probably worsen the mood, and celebrating it would feel hollow,” I added, shrugging.

Ulrich nodded in agreement. “There’s no way we could’ve celebrated your birthday without you awake.”

 “Thanks for making sure I would be,” I smiled.

“It wouldn’t be your birthday without you,” Yumi added with a grin, as she gave me a thumbs-up.

“That’s for sure,” Aelita agreed. “Especially after everything we’ve been through.”

“Yeah. No way would we miss an opportunity like this,” Odd smiled.

“You’re going to have… the best… belated… birthday party… you’ve probably ever had,” Hunter slowly began to grin.

“We should treat you like a princess!” Sister offered. “Maybe there’s a spa near Dr. Martinez’s house that we can all visit, and make sure you get pampered!”

“We’ll have to see about that,” Jeb added with a grin.

“But I know I’ll definitely pamper you when we get there,” Georgina smiled warmly, not taking her eyes off from the road.

“Georgina,” I smiled. “I am so glad to see you.”

“As am I,” she grinned, warmly. “Hunter, too. I’m overjoyed that the both of you came out of there in one piece, wings notwithstanding.”

“I’m really glad… to see you as well,” I could tell Hunter was trying to give a big smile, and his cheek bones were slowly letting him. “I just hope that… we don’t fall… out of contact… after all this is over with.”

“I don’t think we will,” I shook my head. “If we get each other’s number and email addresses, we could keep in contact.”

“We’ll definitely have to do that,” she replied, seeming slightly excited at that thought. “That’s one of the things the three of us should definitely do before we leave Dr. Martinez’s.”

“True. I just hope we don’t end up in a chopper,” I trembled.

“You won’t if I have anything to say about it,” Jeb reassured me. “We’ll find a way to get you guys back to France, that doesn’t involve flying.”

Yumi loved that idea. “Oh, what a relief.”

“That would be the greatest thing in the world,” I nodded, the pink strand of hair flying in front of my face before I gently brushed it away with a free hand. “I’ve already flown enough times in this lifetime, and I don’t even want to try using my wings.”

“You don’t have to right now, Cassidy,” Jeb soothed. “And nobody will force you to use them. Only when you’re ready, and not before.”

With Jeb’s reassurance, I settled down into my seat, as he returned to his case, loading up two more syringes with serum. Once they were loaded, he took each one in his right hand, grabbed his healing cream in another, and crawled over to Kaitlyn and Patrick. Jeremie’s female cousin was first, getting a gentle poke with the first syringe, before Jeb softly rubbed a bit of cream on both that spot and the spot where the whitecoats had poked her, earlier. He then repeated each process for Patrick, both of them slowly coming around within five seconds of each other.

“That was… wild…” Patrick uttered in a half-asleep daze, barely able to keep his eyes open.

“I know, Patrick, trust me,” I muttered.

While Patrick was at least coherent, Kaitlyn still needed a bit of help in that department. “Uh… Cassidy… is the puppy okay?”

Kiwi yipped, giggling. “Yes, Kaitlyn.”

“Okay, good,” Kaitlyn almost seemed unfazed by Kiwi’s reply, at least at first. “I was afraid the… tyrannosaurus had… eaten my grilled cheese…”

“It has a large head and little arms,” _mi novio’s_ puppy laughed.

“You’re right…” Kaitlyn was still in a daze. “I don’t know… what I was thinking…” She slowly allowed her eyes to close, for a few seconds.

Suddenly, Jeremie started counting, as if he knew something was coming. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one…”

As though his counting was a cue, his female cousin’s eyes snapped open, and she yelled, “DID KIWI JUST HAVE A FREAKING CONVERSATION WITH ME?!”

“Yes!” Nearly every conscious person, except for Patrick, replied in unison, before bursting into laughter. Patrick, instead, stared confused around the room, wondering why it was being treated as a joke.

“HOW the _HELL_ did THAT happen?!” was her next surprised outburst.

“We came up with messing with DNA somewhere,” I muttered, preparing my fingers to put into my ears in case she decided to shout again.

I could see Hunter doing the same, his teeth gritted.

“They did _WHAT?!_ ” That drove mine and Hunter’s fingers into our own ears, Kaitlyn now seeming flabbergasted over the whole thing. Unfortunately, I could read lips, even if I was temporarily deaf. “First Aelita’s and yours, and now Kiwi’s?! URRRGHH!! When I get my HANDS on those whitecoats, I’m gonna… I’m gonna…!!”

Not only was I covering my ears, but I was also quite freaked out by the way Kaitlyn was acting. Thankfully, Aelita noticed this and crawled over to me, wrapping me in a warm, comforting embrace.

“It’s okay, Cassidy,” she whispered, cooing soothingly. “She’ll calm down, soon.”

I nodded, teeth unclenching somewhat.

“Hey, hey…” Jeb then tried to jump in, hoping to calm Kaitlyn. “Those scientists are done with. You won’t have to worry about them, anymore. What’s done is done, and while we can try to reverse some of their experiments, it might be a bit difficult, if not nearly impossible.”

He glanced over at me, noticing I didn’t like Kaitlyn’s reaction and turned his attention back to her. “And please calm down. There’s nothing we can do right now, anyway. Besides, you’re scaring Cassidy and Hunter.”

“Pl-please…” My voice was fragile as I pleaded, on the verge of tears.

She looked over at me, then at Hunter, who looked somewhat afraid as well, before taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Cassidy. I’m sorry, Hunter. It’s just… everything that happened in the School just… it just drove me up a wall. Now I’ve got wings, just like the two of you, and all of our friends, Kiwi can talk, and you’ve got part of Aelita’s DNA, Cassidy. It’s like something out of _Hospital of Horrors_ , almost. And I don’t even watch that show!”

I took a deep, cleansing breath as well, pulled my fingers from my ears, and slowly calmed myself down. “I don’t ei-either… I only watched a c-couple episodes, but got so scared I denounced the status of a, what did you call it, Odd?”

“A patient?” Odd prompted.

“A patient. Ugh… I still think Dr. Shrank is a saint compared to the School,” I trembled.

“After what I’ve seen,” Jeremie jumped in, “I’d be inclined to agree with you. I’m not fond of that show, either. It’s way too unrealistic. But what those whitecoats did, in comparison to Dr. Shrank, feels even worse to me, as well.”

Jeb nodded, even though I felt as though he didn’t know what we were talking about. “That’s why I do what I do. I don’t want anyone to have to go through anything like what Max, Fang, and the others went through. Even though your treatment was slightly more gentle, and you had the luck of quite a few kind scientists, I still can’t bring myself to let anyone go through anything like that, if I can help it. Only, sometimes help doesn’t arrive as quickly as you might want it to.”

“That is true…” I muttered, feeling so useless. “I couldn’t even prevent it because the memory of the vision I had was erased.”

“You had a vision of that?” Jeb was surprised, once again.

“Only of a whitecoat injecting me with some ‘Precious DNA’ and my subject number was twelve, next to Angel’s.” I lowered my head, feeling lower than dirt. “I couldn’t even enact Plan 120 to save our skins.”

“None of that is your fault, Cassidy,” Jeb tried to reassure me. “Even if you had remembered, you didn’t know when it was going to happen, or how. You were only given a small tidbit of information. And being too relaxed wasn’t your fault, either. You were upset and tense. If anything, Georgina should’ve eased up a bit.” He sounded almost as if he were about to chuckle after he said that last bit.

“It wasn’t her fault either,” Jeremie pointed out.

“You’re right, Jeremie. She was only trying to help, and she did an excellent job, as always. I like to say she has a real knack for taking care of people and helping them relax. But regardless, nobody blames you for what happened back there, and you shouldn’t blame yourself, either. If you don’t forgive yourself, the scientists will have won, either way.”

“I think William does. He said, ‘You fell for it again!’ and I did,” I muttered.

William’s eyes widened when he heard this. “Okay, okay. I admit that I probably should have chosen my words better, Cass, but I don’t blame you. You were the only one of us who had come up with anything resembling a plan, and I wanted to try and snap you out of whatever deep relaxation Georgina had plunged you into. She must really have magic fingers, as I’ve never, _ever_ seen you as relaxed as you were.”

“I can’t take all the credit. _Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremie helped, too!_ ” I argued. “I only had 119 badly flawed plans, and they helped me out.”

“But those were 119 well-thought out plans, that just didn’t work in that situation,” Yumi interjected. “It’s hard to come up with a working plan when your enemy knows everything about you.”

“She’s right,” Aelita agreed. “All we did was offer suggestions.”

“We had to start from somewhere,” Jeremie was last to reply. “Even I couldn’t have come up with that many plans, in the same amount of time it took you.”

“I know, but each one seemed like it would end in disaster! Plan A—formerly Plan 1—would require a map of the ventilation system, of which we didn’t have. We only had the map of Kadic’s. Plus Erasers could have caught where we were, and we’d end up with our necks stung,” I blinked. “And plan 116 would require the use of a laundry cart, and even then the slightest motion next to a whitecoat would put us in danger.”

Before I could keep going, I felt Jeb place a hand on my shoulder. “Yes, but… it’s okay. All that matters is that you’re out of there, now, and you won’t ever have to worry about going back there. So you can relax. Everything’s fine, and I’m sure it’s only bound to get better.”

I nodded. I knew he was right on all counts.

Kiwi smiled. “Plus, hearing you come up with plans was a good thing.”

While I listened to Kiwi reassure me as well, no matter how weird that might have seemed at first, Jeb was busy crawling into the back of the van, once more. Only this time, he re-emerged with a different container. Bringing it back over to the seats where we all sat, he opened the container, revealing a familiar sight: our cell phones.

“And now that we’re free from that place,” he commented, “I thought you all might like to have these back.”

I squealed in joy, hugging mine to my chest. “Next inadvertent adventure, I will tape it to my chest and refuse to give it up!”

“I’ll tape mine to my ankle!” Sister jumped in, gazing at her cell phone with glee. “No one will ever find it there!”

“Good plan, Sister.” I kissed the screen to mine. Now neither of us would hopefully lose our phones if something as crazy as what we just went through happened again.

Taking hers from the pile, Aelita happily slid it into the left pocket on her dress. “I think we should all place our cell phones in a place where no one will know to look, besides us.”

She then turned to Jeremie. “And as soon as we get back to Kadic, I’m going to not only tape your cell phone to your ankle, Jeremie, I’m going to find a place to tape your laptop, too. Just like Cassidy suggested.” She winked at me.

“It was more _threatened_ , but let’s not split hairs,” I giggled.

“Yeah, you don’t wanna split hairs!” Odd shot back, comically. “Your next one might end up purple!”

While he tried to be funny, it freaked me out more than anything, as my cheeks heated up. Why couldn’t he have commented on something else?!

“Odd…” Ulrich groaned. “She just calmed down.”

I saw him visibly tense up, a worried look overtaking his features, before he quickly crawled over to me, and snuggled me. “I’m sorry, Cat Girl! I didn’t mean it like that!”

Slowly, my breathing regulated. “I-it’s okay… It’s a t-trigger right now…”

Even Kiwi made his way over to my lap, crawling between his master and I, before climbing up between us, and gently licking my face. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. I know my master didn’t mean it! Let him give you a belly rub!”

Instead of asking for one, or waiting for _mi novio_ to rub my belly himself, I just laughed. “Kiwi…”

Kiwi smiled even more, letting out a happy yip as he looked up at me.

“See? Even Kiwi knows how to make you feel better,” my wildcard smiled.

“I guess so, Odd,” I giggled.

But as I giggled, a question suddenly popped into my mind, in regards to my streak of pink hair: had they turned me into Aelita’s sister, as Mandy had said when they injected that “precious DNA” into my body? And what exactly would that mean? I was a flesh-and-blood, albeit adopted, McGuire, and if they really did put some of Aelita’s DNA into mine, how different would that make things? I wasn’t becoming… part Schaeffer… was I?

“Cassidy?” Jeremie asked, noticing I was deep in thought.

I quickly snapped out of it with a blink, turning my attention to Einstein. “Yeah, Einstein?”

“You seem lost in thought,” Aelita noted. “Are you okay?”

“I just… Something Mandy said is really screwing with my head like you wouldn’t believe. It was during our out-of-body experience.” I turned to her, as well.

It was like she immediately knew what I was talking about. “It was when Mandy said that you were going to become my sister, wasn’t it?”

I nodded. “Do you think when we get back to Kadic, we could use the scanners to see if what Mandy said was true?”

“Of course you can,” Jeremie answered for her, nodding with a comforting grin. “We’ll do it first thing, as soon as we can.”

“And even if it turns out to be true,” Aelita then added, in her usual soothing, disarming tone, as she wrapped her arm around my back, “I wouldn’t mind having you as a sister. I think we’d get along quite well.”

“Thank you, Aelita,” I smiled, resting my chin on her shoulder.

“My pleasure,” she soothed, as I felt her hand begin to softly and soothingly rub my back.

“You two were already roommates,” Yumi added, “before Mr. Delmas moved us all into Lyoko HQ. So you already know how the other acts.”

“That’s right. Cassidy wakes silently when she has a nightmare that doesn’t involve XANA,” Aelita noted. “Just a small gasp, a jolt from the covers, and then a quick trip to the bathroom.”

I nodded. Yumi was right; she practically knew me to a T. “It’s true. Aelita screams when she has hers, but I helped as much as possible.”

“You definitely do,” Hunter smiled, and I could tell he was finally more awake than he had been. “The way you two act around each other, it’s almost harder to believe you _aren’t_ sisters already. You’re like best friends, if not closer.”

I gulped, my cheeks gaining a slight, rosy tint. “It kinda helps that I really um… wanted her as a roommate, hence the double-occupancy room?”

Even Aelita let out a slight sheepish giggle. “That’s right. And I was overjoyed when I found out that I would be sharing a room with you. Even back before Jeremie had worked to first materialize me, I had also formed a bond with you, Cassidy; before I even knew what a ‘best friend’ was.”

“But we’re also best friends with Yumi,” I winked, a smile growing on my features.

“Of course!” Aelita gave a warm grin, as well.

Yumi nodded, giving a thumbs-up as she smiled. “That’s right!”

“I guess, in a way, it shouldn’t be bothering me as much, but Mandy is still—I don’t know…”

“She’s a…Klorbag Varblernelk, then?” Jeremie grinned, trying to keep himself from chuckling. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

My eyes widened as a smile grew upon my face. “That’s it!”

Ulrich looked as though he had been caught off-guard by Jeremie’s random outburst. “A Glorba-what?”

“Tamaranean insult. It was used in _Teen Titans_ ’ ‘Forces of Nature’ episode. I learned a couple words from Starfire as a result,” I smirked at Samurai.

“Oh.” That was all he could say in reply, before he fell over backward in his seat, laughing his head off. Apparently, he had to understand it to laugh at it.

Jeb chuckled as well. “You learn something new every day.”

“Yeah,” I laughed. “I still don’t know what Yumi’s father yelled at me in Japanese one time. Apparently, they were curses, but I still—”

The thought drove a slightly uneasy look to my geisha friend’s face. “That’s… essentially what he told you. He certainly didn’t call you a Klorbag Varblernelk, if that’s what you were thinking.”

“’Wasn’t even thinking that at all, Yumi. And I don’t think I won your favor by having pronounced those words in the worst possible way,” I smirked, her qualms contagious.

Yumi shook her head, the memory of that day a quite horrible one to her. “Don’t worry about it. My father was dealt with that day, and he even apologized to you. He bowed pretty low to the ground, too. That means he really meant it.”

“I must’ve been so emotionally messed up that day I mistook that as a sign for something else,” I blinked. “I was glad that you rushed in and helped deal with him by double-teaming with your mother, even though my own pain was up.”

She nodded. “Don’t mention it. I wasn’t going to let my father wreck you even further than you already had been.”

“Yeah, he even let me sit where he generally resided at the breakfast table the next morning,” I smiled.

“Mr. Ishiyama had been having troubles at work, off-and-on that week,” Aelita recalled. “Apparently, one day he just couldn’t take it.”

“And he exploded in front of me while I had a painful emotional attack,” I nodded. “It ended up colliding with a panic attack instead.”

Yumi grimaced once more, before waving her hands back and forth in front of her chest. “Yes, but that’s already been taken care of. Cassidy, you’ve recovered from that, so we don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

“True, plus he showed me he was petting Kiwi when he was at your place, when I hid behind you,” I smiled.

Her face softened. “That’s true. My father doesn’t want any more bad blood between my family and yours. He’s truly sorry about his outburst, and he promised me, and you, that he wouldn’t do it again.”

“Tell you the truth, I never really told my parents anything about that incident. It was more geared between him and me, and I didn’t want them to say I couldn’t be friends with you if your father was acting that way.” I beamed.

Her lips slowly curved upward. “That’s a relief. That might be for the best, anyway.”

That was when Kiwi leaped onto my lap once more, and looked up at me, gently pressing his front paws against my belly to get closer to my face. “I think somebody’s getting a bit too tense! Now would be a good time for a belly rub!”

Without even looking over at _mi novio,_ much less waiting for me to ask him, he began to softly rub his front paws against my shirt, as his mouth hung open with his tongue to the side, giving his face a silly look. This whole entire thing made everyone else in the van start laughing.

And believe me when I say that laughter felt like the best medicine since we woke up in the vehicle.


	11. Belated Birthday Fun at Dr. Martinez's Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s and the plot.

We spent the rest of the van ride just chatting about all sorts of different things, such as the meaning of our respective wings’ color schemes, and what we would do, once we got back to France, while Jeb slowly brought Sam around, and helped change the clothes of anyone who wanted. It was about twenty minutes afterward, that Georgina finally pulled the van into a driveway, with Max and her flock landing nearby, not long after. Putting his various cases into the back, Jeb soon opened the side door, allowing each of us to climb out. We had finally arrived at Dr. Martinez’s house.

“Max… it’s so good to see you,” Dr. Martinez smiled, her long brown hair held up in a headband.

“It’s great to see you, too, Mom,” Max smiled. “Jeb called us in when he reported one of the victims having a shunt in her arm.”

I grimaced and tried to hide behind Ari, knowing that Max was talking about me, and worried about how her mother would react. That, and it was a terrible memory, to begin with.

“It’s okay. Your name is Cassidy, right?” Max’s mom smiled gently. “You should feel safe here.”

“We told her she would,” Jeremie remarked, smiling at me. “And I’m Jeremie Belpois.”

“You and your friends have been all over the news,” a new voice came in, one I remembered from the books—Ella Martinez’s.

“Word of abduction spreads fast—especially a mass kidnapping,” Angel nodded, standing next to the Scottie she named Total.

“That and those scoundrels are bound to pay for it one day,” the dog agreed.

Jeremie’s eyes widened, as they shot down to Total. As if the surprise over Kiwi suddenly talking wasn’t enough, meeting another talking dog almost bowled him over.

“Wait… you can talk, too?!” the blond genius was dumbfounded.

Sensing his sudden surprise, I rolled my eyes, snorting. “Jeremie, I warned you about Total talking!”

He looked over at me for a second, before blinking, giving the impression that he had to find the memory, again. “Oh, you’re right! I’m sorry, in all the mess of getting over here, it must have slipped my mind. I was told about you. Hello there, Total!”

“It’s okay, Jeremie,” I smiled.

“Hello, Jeremie,” Total woofed. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a very important lady to see.” And just like that, he turned around and walked in the direction of the house.

He glanced over at me. “He has a lady?”

“Total’s in love with an Alaskan Malamute named Akila. She doesn’t talk, fortunately for you,” I smiled. “I told Kiwi that he isn’t after that one friend he made at the spa.”

Kiwi sighed. “Yeah. Tutu’s a very sweet girl. She even laid beside me while we got massaged together.”

“How did you figure out her name?” Ulrich scratched his head.

“It was on her collar, and the official called her Tutu, so it makes sense, Ulrich. By the way, sorry about soaking your sheets,” he grinned sheepishly.

A blush slowly formed in the German-named boy’s cheeks. “Uh… dah—uh… yeah, uhhh… that’s okay…”

“Now don’t just stand there looking like you want a family portrait. Come on in!” Dr. Martinez smiled.

So, that’s what we did. One by one, we followed Max and Dr. Martinez through the front door, into her house. It looked wonderful on the inside, quite spacious and roomy. Definitely much better than the room the whitecoats kept us in, at the School, even before they ambushed us.

“You all have been through a lot,” Fang crossed his arms against his chest, still clothed in black.

I looked at the carpet. “Yeah. It’s been a difficult time.”

“They definitely crossed the line, this time! First, us when they made us this way, then you twelve,” Max growled.

“I wonder why they kidnapped us, though.” Aelita was curious. “And why bird DNA? Do they just experiment on humans, because they can?”

“They saw the monster, Aelita.” I lowered my head. “That psycho told me they all had seen it.”

“It’s true,” Jeb confirmed. “Right after they saw the entire thing, they knew you’d be the perfect targets. But Georgina and I couldn’t talk them out of it quickly enough.”

My head didn't rise. The monster still left me with two hundred-pound weights on my shoulders and the knowledge that I had possibly wrecked my friends’ best-kept secret. And even though it had gotten us preferential treatment back at Kadic, Sister turning from her snobbish ways, and more fans than we knew what to do with—one was even brought along on this journey against his will— I still couldn’t help but think about all the horrible things it caused. Just the thought that we wouldn’t be in California, in the United States, if I hadn’t unknowingly unleashed the monster was enough to trap me in a guilt-filled pit several hundred feet deep, no matter how much I still needed to remind myself that Yumi and Aelita would want me to forgive myself. Somehow, I felt like I couldn’t, because deep within me, there was a sinking feeling that not all of them could.

But it wasn’t long before Jeremie saw my pose, and slid closer to me.

“Cassidy,” not being one to hug and rub backs like his girlfriend, he placed his hand upon my shoulder, instead. “You shouldn’t blame yourself for this. It’s not like you had any foreknowledge that someone was going to see the monster and then come after us. None of us knew it was going to happen. None of this is your fault.”

“He’s right,” Kaitlyn sat next to her cousin, looking with concern at me. “When I said that ‘it wasn’t like anyone evil had seen the monster,' I said that to make you feel better, not predict that something like this was gonna happen. Something like that, you really can’t control. And besides, you blame yourself for everything, especially when you had nothing to do with it, and it _really_ needs to stop, like _now_.”

“But I unleashed the monster, you two, and you know it. I really should have stopped it, but I didn't,” I looked at the two.

“How _could_ you have stopped it?” Kaitlyn challenged me. “You were rapidly losing control of your own body, and you were trying to do something, but you lost control too quickly. Try to tell me how you could have stopped yourself when you had no control over yourself.”

“Listen, Cassidy.” Jeremie was next. “What happened to you in my dorm room that day was completely out of your control. Even if you had locked yourself in my wardrobe, run into the girls’ bathroom, tried to hide in the factory, or the Hermitage, I don’t see anything that would have stopped the monster from materializing.”

“Your friends are right,” Jeb agreed. “Knowing what I’ve seen about your psychic abilities, even if you had found ways to mitigate it, like when you were in Jean-Pierre’s office that one day, what if it only prolonged the time until it was summoned, anyway?”

Their words slowly began to sink in. I knew they were right, that it wasn’t my fault, but the fact that I had no control over the monster I summoned didn’t make me feel any better. It still happened, and no matter how it got there, I was still the lead actor.

“Hey, Cassidy… It wasn’t even your fault. It was more ours than anything,” Yumi consoled. “What would it take to make you see that?”

“The fact that it _was_ my fault. I scared the living crap out of all of you—sorry, Angel—and hurt you down to your souls,” I challenged.

“That was _concern,_ ” Yumi tried to correct me. “When your eyes went pure white, you floated in midair, and your voice went raspy, we were more worried about what was happening to you, rather than what you were doing. If that thing had _killed_ you, we would all feel ten times worse than you do, right now.”

“Still, I hurt you when I went comatose. I—”

“You _didn’t_ hurt us,” Aelita interrupted me. “You scared us. We were afraid you were going to die. We were afraid we were going to lose one of the best friends we’ve ever met. And besides, if anything, _we_ failed _you_. We had seen every single sign you had shown us, everything that would have pointed us to the monster’s summoning, and we ignored them all. How could you possibly blame yourself, for something that was _our_ fault? It wasn’t _you_ who should have stopped it; it was _us._ ”

“She’s right, dear sister,” Sister agreed. “You need to stop blaming yourself for something that was out of your control. No one in this room blames you for the monster. Why don’t you think of all the good things it’s done, instead? It showed me how stupid I was acting. It brought us all a gigantic fanbase.”

She gestured over toward Hunter. “It even brought a boy all the way from America, just to go to the same school as us, because we’re his heroes! Would _that_ have happened, anyway?”

Several more bricks broke away from my mental wall of guilt. “Possibly not, but you have a point. I just feel unforgiven from you guys at times. Like, I’m sorry—”

“When have we ever _not_ forgiven you, Cassidy?” Yumi shot back. “Go on, tell us.”

“Good luck!” Odd challenged. “I’m pretty sure you’ll find that it _never happened!_ ”

“What about that time in Sector Five? Jeremie chastised me for going along with you and Aelita, _Novio_ ,” I rebounded.

“Don’t you remember?” Odd reminded me. “Princess took all the blame for that one, and you know Einstein can’t stay mad at _her!_ ”

“That was my fault, anyway,” Aelita added. “I needed to make sure my father was still alive, somewhere on Lyoko, and while you were telling me that he was, Jeremie didn’t believe it, so I wanted to prove it to him.”

“And I thought I already forgave you for that?” Jeremie queried, sounding almost confused.

“You told me that I should have broken from Aelita and Odd to report straight to you, Jeremie, yelling at me. You didn’t say ‘I forgive you’ when I told you that I was sorry and that I should have used better judgment,” I looked him in his eyes.

Jeremie let out a slight sigh. Yeah, I definitely got him, there.

“Okay, you’re right,” Jeremie’s voice fell. “I was still angry at Aelita for orchestrating the entire thing, I… guess I just forgot. Cassidy, I forgive you.”

“Thank you, Jeremie. And what about the times we ended up arguing with each other? I practically spread napalm down your back and set it ablaze, and after cooling the fire off, I—”

“How many times have I told you, we’re just hormonal and emotional kids. We’re going to disagree with each other, and sometimes we’ll even get into fights over it. And I admit, at times I’m a really horrible listener. But if I haven’t forgiven you for any of those fights, then I forgive you, now. Besides, even if we do fight, and I get angry at you, I could never _hate_ you.”

“And I know that Ulrich already told me he was sorry for all the stupid things he said, but sometimes, I felt as though he thought my visions were evil…”

Ulrich raised an eyebrow. “When did I ever make you think that…?”

“‘Stop talking right now.’ ‘Would you stop with your psychic powers?’ ‘You definitely need to psyche down!’ You even slapped a hand over my mouth when I gave information about Franz Schaeffer! At times you looked at me as if to say, ‘Predict something, I dare you!’ You even challenged me to give Jeremie away when he wrote that postcard to Aelita so she wouldn’t feel alone during mail call.”

He started to look a bit agitated by that. “Okay, okay! So I’ve acted stupid about your powers in the past. But even I know that they’ve saved us more times than they’ve failed us. And I’ve apologized before. If you want me to apologize again, then I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry I treated you like dirt and thought your powers were stupid and pointless. Can you forgive me?”

I nodded, letting another weight off my chest. “Yes, as long as you all forgive me for damaging your psyches with that monster.”

“Of course,” Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, William, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and Sister chorused, each of them giving me a reassuring, calming smile.

I sighed, a new grin gracing my features. “Thanks, guys!”

“Now, how about that rub-down, massage, and bath?” Georgina smiled. “I’ll make it even longer than last time.”

Dr. Martinez looked at me. “What’s all this about?”

Jeremie grinned. “We forgot about her birthday a while back since she was in a coma for three months and it skipped over. We were hoping that you would um… allow us to give Cassidy a long-belated birthday party.”

Max smiled. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Ooh! Can we participate?!” Nudge asked. “I love birthday parties. They’re always so much fun, and there’s so much cake and ice cream… and the best part is watching them open their presents! So much colorful wrapping paper, and they always look so happy… we’ve gotta get Cassidy lots of presents, so that way she can be really happy, with all different colors of wrapping paper! Even throw a few party favors and balloons around!”

“Maybe a few of those foil balloons. The rubber ones popping makes me freeze up,” I grinned.

Max sighed. _She’ll still turn Mother Theresa into an axe murderer._

Hearing the leader of the flock’s thought flung me into the throes of laughter, as I fell backward onto the couch I was sitting on, cackling like crazy.

She cocked a brow. “What’s so funny?”

“Axe murderer!” I got out.

Her cheeks turned a rosy pink, and she let out a sigh. “Let me guess, you can read minds, too.”

“Yep!”

Fang, for one who generally kept all his emotions locked inside, popped a smirk. “There are two Angels in this household now.”

“Yeah, but I try to keep some of the most perverted minds out of my own head, Fang. It’s hard when you have so many thoughts hitting you at one time. It took me a couple months to actually get used to the chaotic minds at Kadic,” I muttered.

“So, uh, Cat Girl,” Odd glanced over at me, with a slightly uneasy look on his face, “where does that, uh… rank me?”

“You are normal. Don’t worry. You may date many girls, but you have interest only about true love, like a mixture of commitment, passion, _and_ intimacy,” I smiled, standing from the couch.

Odd grinned as well. “Cool! You know me like the back of my hand!”

“When do I not?”

“Be sure to wipe up the water, Georgina,” Dr. Martinez warned. “Ella doesn’t like to slip on the floor.”

Georgina nodded. “The floor will be as dry as it was before we went in there. You can trust me.”

“Did you bring the soap and shampoo you used on me?” I asked.

“I did,” Georgina replied, “but I left it in the van. I’ll go out and get them for you.”

I nodded, smiling. “Excellent.”

As Georgina walked out of the house, in pursuit of the van she had driven, Hunter turned to look at Jeremie.

“Hey, Jeremie,” he began, seeming slightly worried, “w-would it be okay if I… I mean, do you think I could… help you guys get presents for Cassidy?”

“Of course, you can, Hunter,” Jeremie answered, a confident grin on his face.

He grinned, like some of the weight came off his shoulders. “Epic! Now that’s galactic dancing!”

Odd beamed, looking over at him. “‘Galactic dancing?’ Never heard that one before! Cool catchphrase, though, Hunter!”

 In reply, Hunter chuckled a bit, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. “Uhh… thanks, Odd. I got it from an old video game. It was a funny mistranslation.”

“A lot of mistranslations are,” I giggled.

Hunter nodded. “Definitely! It’s just funny, trying to see some of the Japanese designers trying to use English words, when they don’t know how to use the right ones, or put them in the right order.”

“Yep,” I smiled.

“How are you, gentlemen?” Odd randomly quipped, before laughing. “All your base are belong to us! You have no chance to survive, make your time!”

“Somebody set up us the bomb,” Ulrich jumped in, chortling.

Jeremie turned around, his brows raised in confusion. “What are you guys talking about?!”

“Just an old Mega Drive game called _Zero Wing_ ,” Ulrich clued Einstein in. “Its dialogue was so terrible, it was funny.”

“Oh yeah, ‘for great justice,' right?” Yumi jumped in, grinning mischievously.

As the three continued to go back and forth, I decided to walk to the bathroom, to wait for Georgina to come back. Even though I saw that “All your base/us the bomb” statement in the _Impossible Quiz_ , I had never played _Zero Wing,_ so I had no idea what any of them were even talking about. Interestingly, as I walked away, I could hear what felt like a sigh of relief, but I wasn’t sure where, or who, it would have come from.

I waited for a couple minutes, biding my time by taking my shoes off, before Georgina came back, Dove soap and shampoo bottles in her hands.

“Great to see you, Georgina. I’m just so glad you were on our side,” I smiled.

She set the bottles next to the bathtub, before beginning a search for bath towels and washcloths in many nearby cabinets. “I’m glad to see you again, too, Cassidy. I just wish I could have told you beforehand what was going on, but I feared that if you found out too soon, it could have jeopardized things for all of us.”

“It’s okay. I had a feeling you had good intentions, and man was I right!” I giggled.

“You certainly were!” Georgina agreed, finally finding a few bath towels, which she pulled out, and began to make a sort of bed on the floor, near the bathtub. “I was like Jeb. I had seen too much horror to just want to let my subjects go on like that. That’s why I rubbed, massaged, and washed you and Hunter as softly, soothingly, and thoroughly as I did; I hoped I could help the two of you to relax, long enough for Jeb and I to rally the troops, but it ended up taking longer than either of us anticipated.”

“I heard, but everything’s okay now. We’re finally free from the School’s clutches,” I nodded. “And I’m glad you didn’t tip the other whitecoats off.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t have felt proud of myself if I had done that,” she lamented, having finished making a soft ‘bed’ of sorts on the bathroom tile, before opening another cabinet, which contained washcloths. “Especially after I heard what Mandy and Reilly did to you and your friends. I hated it the first time, when I saw it happen to Max, Fang, Gasman, and her flock. But I couldn’t bear to let them get away with it a second time. I knew I should have acted sooner, but at least I know I helped save some this time.”

“And we appreciate it.” I smiled, wrapping my arms around the older woman. “I am so glad you rescued us.”

She returned the warm gesture, giving me a soft kiss on my temple, as she placed the washcloth she was holding on her makeshift towel bed. “It was my pleasure. Of course, I can’t take all the credit; it was Jeb who had the connections.”

“Jeb will be thanked, too.” I felt a sensation I hadn’t felt since I was only an entity; the feeling of being loved. Only this time, I was actually in my physical body when Georgina kissed my forehead.

“That’s great,” she smiled. “I’m sure he’ll love to hear your praises, as well. He and I worked pretty hard to get you all out of there. I’m only sorry we didn’t get to you before they injected the avian DNA into your bodies.”

“It was so strange, but I forgive you.” I started to get ready.

She smiled, nodding appreciatively. “I appreciate that wholeheartedly.” She then giggled, slightly, as she watched me undress. “That reminds me, having wings might make it harder for you to wash your entire body, as now you’ll have to worry about your wings, as well. I know you won’t like the idea, but someone might have to go into the bath or shower with you, either just to wash your wings, or to help you wash, as well.”

“If you’re available, I choose you,” I blinked. “And I hope that didn’t sound bad.”

“Of course not,” she shook her head. “If we have to meet somewhere, anytime you want a bath, we could always set something up, even though I don’t know how hard that might make things. If anything, I could wash you, and all of your friends, as well. That might make things easier.”

Suddenly, a look of concern overtook her face, as a thought hit her. “Only… I worry about how Hunter would take that. I know he’d enjoy having his whole body rubbed and massaged, and probably even wiped as well, and I'm sure he'd be fine, once I get him _into_ the water, but the question then becomes, _how_ I would get him into the water…”

“Maybe he could be talked into it until he gets used to it. On the subject of wing care, yeah. Because I’m still not used to these things yet,” I muttered, the two newest body parts flicking out as I took off my bra. They weren’t big, but they were well beyond the goofy-chicken-wings stage the flock had.

“It will take time to get used to them, but there’s no rush at all. Everyone learns at their own pace. But I’ll probably have to cut slits into the back of your shirt, as you’re bound to feel uncomfortable if you keep them pressed against your back for extended periods of time.”

“True, but I still don’t know about flying, yet. I still have bad memories about that fighter j-jet…”

Even the mere thought of it made me cringe, stopping me from finishing my sentence. But Georgina was sympathetic, as she wrapped her arms around my now completely unclothed body, softly rubbing my bare back, in an attempt to help me relax.

“You won’t have to worry about flying until you’re ready,” she cooed. “Besides, your wings aren’t big enough to be able to carry you, yet, anyway. But when they are big enough, when you fly will still be up to you. You could even choose to never fly at all, and nobody will think any different of you if that does become your choice.”

I nodded. “I guess it’s ironic, in some respects. A bird-kid who doesn’t fly.”

“You could say your wings are just for show, like an accessory.” She giggled a bit.

“I guess,” I smiled.

Releasing me from her warm embrace, she crawled over to the washcloth she had pulled out before. “Now, then… would the belated birthday girl like to have her whole body softly wiped with warm water, from head to toe, before she gets a body rub, or would she just like to start with the body rub, instead? The wipe will really help you relax, too.”

“Sure,” I nodded. “Plus, they could be on their way, getting the stuff—”

Oh, how right I was! As I stopped to draw breath, while Georgina got down on her knees and turned the taps in the bathtub, the two of us heard the van’s engine turn over and pull out of Dr. Martinez’s driveway before speeding off, a whoop from Odd emanating as the Subdigitals’ song _Break Away_ blasted through its speakers.

“Eeyup,” I giggled.

Georgina laughed as well, as she felt the water that gushed from the bathtub taps, before looking over at me. “Want to feel the water, to make sure it’s warm enough before I wipe you? Don’t want you to freeze instead of relaxing, after all.”

I crawled over to the tub, before sticking my hand under the water. The first time it felt a bit too hot, making me flinch back, so Georgina turned the cold tap. That made the water a bit cooler than I would have liked, so she slightly turned it back. After the water’s temperature had changed, it felt perfect.

“That feels great!” I smiled.

“Wonderful!” Georgina replied, before sliding the washcloth under the water, and thoroughly soaking it. “And how about the towel bed I made? How soft does it feel?”

I laid my body on the bed, smiling. “Just perfect.”

She crawled back over, the wet washcloth in her hand. “Wonderful. Now, I’m not sure how long your friends will be, but I thought I could spend at least an hour on each task. I’ll wipe you for an hour, then rub you, massage you, and then give you the most soothing, invigorating, relaxing bath you’ve ever felt. I’ll wash you in places you didn’t even know could get dirty, and you’ll sparkle after the hour is up. But you won’t turn into a prune, so don’t you worry about that.”

“Great. I would love that.”

She smiled warmly, as she knelt down by me, and gently placed the warm, wet washcloth against my belly, starting a soothing, slow and gentle wipe from there. Oh, if I could just tell you how incredibly relaxing it was, as she wiped every inch of skin on my body, scrubbing me everywhere, front and back. It was just so incredible. The spa that Sister had paid for us to go to had absolutely nothing on Georgina’s technique.

I wish I didn’t have to say that the hours flew, but they did. Of course, my eyes were closed most of the time, as I was sent into deep relaxation. After she had wiped me everywhere, she began her soft, soothing full-body rub, which felt even more relaxing. Just feeling her soft, slightly wet hands exploring my body was so incredible, that I wanted it to keep going on and on. But if she had, she wouldn’t have had time for the massage.

And the massage! Oh, the massage… it felt just as good as both times she did it to me, only thankfully I was in a much better-looking bathroom, instead of the generic “washroom” of sorts in the School. She worked nearly every muscle in my body with such a wonderful, gentle touch, I was amazed.

The only thing that disrupted the relaxation was when I had to get up and step into the bathtub. As she got halfway through the massage, I had heard Georgina turn the taps on the tub faucet once more, and surprisingly, I heard a bottle top pop open, as I listened to the tub fill. That by itself was quite relaxing, but it left me curious about the bottle top pop I heard. But I would soon find out. As she had me stand up, and step into the bathtub, I realized she had filled the tub about halfway, and there was a thick layer of bubble bath sitting on top. Naturally, I couldn’t wait to step in and sit down, so nothing stopped me from doing that. In a few seconds, she had soaked my entire body, and the washing began.

With a different washcloth than the one she had wiped my entire body with, Georgina began to softly, slowly, thoroughly, soothingly and invigoratingly wash every inch of skin on my body, getting all around every part, washing into every opening, up into my underarms, down through my toes, all over my belly and back, and absolutely everywhere in-between. It was even more relaxing than the wipe, and twice as relaxing as the body rub and massage. Each arm got a soft, gentle, thorough scrub for at least a few minutes, not to mention my belly and chest. My feet were washed at least three times over, just like my legs, and up. She spent a generous amount of time on my back, my sides, and every inch of my neck, and was extra gentle on my face, and behind my ears. Then came my wings, something I had nearly forgotten about, in the wake of the soothing relaxation, from everything up to this point. And as Georgina began to soothingly, slowly, and thoroughly wash them, it actually felt a lot more calming than I had imagined. She washed them up and down, going all around their edges, making sure she didn’t miss a single feather. It made me feel a bit better about having them, especially if having someone wash them felt this good.

By the time she started on my hair, my entire body, and both of my wings were caked in at least two inches of suds. And she even gave me a soothing scalp massage, as she transformed my head full of hair into a giant loofah. After she had finally finished washing thoroughly every inch of my body, she ended up turning on the shower, just to be able to rinse off the sheer amount of suds on my skin, hair, and wings.

With my entire being rinsed clean, she helped me out of the tub, opened the drain, and helped me back onto the towel bed, where she gave me an incredibly soft, gentle, thorough drying rub. The whole experience was just simply phenomenal beyond words, and I would give anything to be wiped, rubbed, massaged, bathed, and dried like this, every single morning. _Sister has got to get her way when we get back to Kadic._

It wasn’t long before we heard the van door open, the engine turning off. Our friends were home.

After Georgina had finished drying every inch of my body and hair, I decided to weigh myself, just as Jeb had suggested on the van ride over. Stepping onto Dr. Martinez’s scale, without even a towel to weigh me down, the number that appeared on the display surprised me, and definitely not in a good way; it read “seventy-three.” How had this happened? Was this from the food that Jeb had fed us? Did I lose weight from all my worrying or the tests?! Was I going to lose even more, just by thinking about this?!

Before I could ask Georgina her opinion, I heard _mi novio_ call to me through the closed bathroom door.

“Don’t worry, Cat Girl,” he reassured me, “stay right where you are! Let Georgina wash you a bit more! Surely she hasn’t scrubbed your whole body, yet!”

“Okay, Odd,” I giggled, putting on my clothes. “Take all the time you need.” Turning to Georgina, I rubbed my arm. “What does this mean? That Yolanda—”

She smiled, disarming my worried stance. “I’m sure it’s just your metabolism, and you had been in a coma for a while. So you probably lost some weight during it.”

“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it right now: Pity my own backseat,” I sighed, looking at my tiny belly.

“Don’t feel that way. You’re perfect, no matter what,” she smiled.

In response, my new wings started flapping, as though they were responding to my inability to take praise. Thankfully, they weren’t big enough to pull me from the floor or carry me aloft. “Uh… That’s gonna take some getting used to.” I grinned uneasily, tittering.

“It definitely is,” Georgina nodded.

She then turned to picking up the bath towels she had spread out on the floor, and setting the washcloths over the bathtub faucet, while making sure to wipe up whatever drops of water came off me, as I stepped out of the bath. “Besides, having a little pride in your own beautiful body isn’t anything to be ashamed of. There’s a very broad line between thinking you’re ugly and acting like your boyfriend.”

“Odd tried to give me self-confidence lessons, and they didn’t stick too well,” I shyly stared down at the floor, pretending to paint a picture with my shoes.

“Oh, sweetheart,” Georgina blinked. “You just need some time. Learning how to think more highly of yourself, your abilities, and your body don't happen overnight.”

Deep down inside, I knew she was right. Changing the way you think about something usually takes quite a while, depending on how long you’ve thought about something a certain way. Of course, I’ve always thought about myself like this, no matter how many times people like her and _mi novio_ keep telling me I’m beautiful, gorgeous, pretty, wonderful… sheesh, I could feel my cheeks heating up, just from thinking about this… The problem was, it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to teach myself to think better of myself, and aside from Odd and Georgina, I wasn’t getting very much help in that department. So, what was I to do?

“It’s okay to think of yourself as beautiful sometimes. I’m sure Sissi could give you some help and tips, too,” she smiled.

I nodded. “Plus when I look at Aelita, Yumi, Sister, Kaitlyn, and Sam, I see them as more beautiful than I am, more often than not.”

“You’re always hardest on yourself; everyone is,” she gently interjected. “But did you ever think about it like this, sweetheart? How do you think they see you? Do you think Aelita, Yumi, Sissi, Kaitlyn, and Sam think you’re ugly? Or do you think they think of you, the same way you think of them?”

“I really never thought of that. I felt like they deserved the prize more than I did,” I blinked.

“The six of you could easily share that prize. It doesn’t have to go to only one of you. I never even thought of it as a contest. They take good care of themselves, as you do yourself; they even take good care of you, as well. I would think that they would want nothing more than to share that prize with you.”

I nodded. Georgina was right. It should never have been thought of like a contest, especially since Sister wasn’t the same snobby girl she used to be. We were all beautiful girls, and even though some of us were more upfront about it than others, it didn’t mean any of us were any less pretty. This whole entire time, my friends had been trying to get me to not be so hard on myself. When even Georgina was reminding me of this simple fact, that had to mean something.

A smile grew on my face. “Thanks, Georgina.”

 _Odd shouldn't put that streamer over there!_ I suddenly overheard Ulrich think, causing a small fit of giggles.

Georgina turned to me after she hung the towels up to dry, and her smile increased as she heard me chuckle, even though I wasn’t sure if she knew why I was laughing. “I take it you just thought of something funny, sweetie?”

“Not this time,” I grinned. “Ulrich's mind was saying something about a misplaced streamer.”

Even she let out a slight giggle after that. “They’re thinking about the decorations they’re hanging in Dr. Martinez’s living room, aren’t they?”

“I think so…” I sighed happily.

 _Ow! Jeremie stepped on my foot!_ William moaned in his head.

“I know your friends really know how to throw a party,” Georgina walked over by me since she had finished everything else she was doing, “as I remember the first birthday party they threw for you.”

“And it was a momentous occasion. They even woke me up with one of Cher’s songs. ‘Emotional Fire,’ I remember. That was the best!” I smiled.

She grinned as well. “You certainly did enjoy it, from what I remember seeing. And from the sounds of what you’re hearing them think, this one’s going to be another one to remember.”

 _Fang is doing a great job with the foil balloons,_ Yumi's thoughts carried a smile.

A small squeal filled the air, causing my eyes to widen, and my mind to leap into overdrive. _Did something happen?! Are there other Erasers?!_ If the whitecoats had recovered from the attack so soon, I worried that they would do worse to us.

 _No, Cassidy, someone scared me a little. No big deal,_ Angel replied sweetly. _Ari’s the only Eraser here._

My eyes relaxed to normal size. _Okay. Thanks for the update, Angel. Carry on._

Even though she was oblivious to everything that had just taken place, Georgina still gave my back a soft, soothing rub through my shirt, hoping to help me relax. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m sure everything’s fine out there. Probably somebody scared someone else or dropped something that made a loud noise when it hit the floor. We’re far away from the School so you can relax.”

“Someone accidentally scared Angel a bit, so everything is okay now,” I nodded, feeling better.

“That’s wonderful,” she replied, warmly. “I’m sure they’ll have the living room set up soon, and I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see what they’ve done with it.”

“Yeah! I'm glad that they are doing this.”

Georgina kept softly and soothingly rubbing my back, as she watched me listen to each and every thought from the others, as they continued decorating. She knew they were going to do a fantastic job, even if she couldn’t read minds like I could. That alone was keeping me quite entertained, while we waited.

 _Ari’s doing a great job of guarding the cake,_ Kaitlyn's thoughts rang through my head. _Odd would have downed the thing in one fell swoop._

“Darned straight!” I said out loud. “He almost ate all of Aelita's birthday cake when she was still on Lyoko.”

Georgina chuckled, not even surprised at my sudden outburst. “Ah, yes… Jeremie called him a ‘glutton,' didn’t he?”

“Yeah, he still has tendencies, but he’s at least learned a bit of self-control, since then. But not by much.”

“It must've been because of his high metabolism,” she giggled. “Joseph told me how high it was, and imagine how far my jaw dropped when he did.”

“Probably went to China?” I guessed.

She couldn’t help but laugh at that. “It nearly did! It certainly went through half of the entire Earth, that’s for sure!”

“I think I share a high metabolism, too, if Rosa’s words to me are to be believed,” I blinked.

“Maybe you and Odd are quite similar in more ways than you think.”

“But I have weird habits every now and then,” I told her. “I ate macaroni and cheese for breakfast once. The strange thing was, no one commented on it.”

“They’re probably used to Odd doing it,” she ventured a guess, “that seeing you do it doesn’t faze them. They probably figure that Odd’s been rubbing off on you quite a bit.”

“Odd never ate Mac and Cheese for breakfast. He always ate what's on the menu.”

She brought her free hand up to her face, caressing her chin. “Maybe they thought it was your time of the month? Or you had come back from a Lyoko mission, and were behaving strangely? Something like that?”

“I probably was being visited by Aunt Rose that day, because the last Lyoko mission had possessed bikers after Yumi. And I wasn't doing too good after the attack. William suddenly knew my nickname,” I remembered, “and I had a panic attack after reading my third book, keeping Aelita up all night with me.”

“Oh yes,” Georgina nodded, understandingly. “I remember things didn’t go too well, but at least Aelita was there to help you keep calm. I got the feeling she didn’t mind losing sleep if it meant helping you recover.”

“True, plus she had Yolanda bring up a cup of tea with her grandmother’s recipe. I slept well through the week,” I smiled. “I guess I had a hankering for some macaroni and cheese when I woke up. Then Odd enacted a bet with me the day before I ate the thing.”

“The Spanish bet; I remember that well.” She giggled. “But you’ve taught your friends how to speak it well. You probably could have spent an entire week doing that to your buddies, and it would have been as though nothing had changed.”

I chuckled. “But the bet was only for twenty-four hours. Even Odd knew that it was going to be a struggle for me to keep it up for a week.”

“I could see it being a problem for your teachers, as I’m sure they expect you to speak either English or French, but aside from that, I don’t understand.”

“Oh, believe me, when I talked to my teachers, I spoke regularly. English or French, but when I was away from them, I flipped the tape, so to speak, and went into Spanish. I told Odd that I would do it differently around the teachers,” I smiled.

She beamed. “You definitely have quite an interesting set of friends, and I know you cherish them. Once Samantha and Hunter fall into the groove, I’m sure you’ll treat them like part of your big family, as well.”

“Oh, I’m sure they already fit,” I giggled.

“I’m sure you’re right. From what I’ve heard, Samantha seems like quite an interesting person, and I know Hunter will be a wonderful friend. After all, he looks up to you and the others.”

“That's true, plus I could tell he needed some friends, seeing how he was just sitting there tightly wound, like a spring. He didn't have anyone to soothe him as I did. I just didn't want him to feel so alone in the sedan.”

She smiled warmly. “I’m glad you took to him as well as you did. He’s really not as fragile as he sometimes appears. When I watched him undergo his mental tests, he seemed really at home, like he was in his element. The last one was quite horrible, though, and I was afraid he was going to take it the way he did.”

“Oh, that day was _horrid_. I ended up—”

I felt her walk her fingers up and down my back in a very soothing way as if she didn’t want me to go any further. “I do remember. I’m sorry you had to see him in that state, though. But don’t worry. That’s all in the past, now. I helped you relax, and I can easily help him relax as well if the need arises. But let’s not focus on anything terrible, sweetheart. You’re going to have a wonderful belated birthday party, and I’m sure you’ll be quite excited to see what presents everyone has bought you.”

I giggled, reminded about that. “True. I can't wait!”

 _Almost ready,_ Jeremie announced in his head.

Georgina chuckled warmly. “I’m sure it’ll be another one to remember for a very long time. Have any of the others told you how much longer they’ll need to redecorate Dr. Martinez’s living room?”

“Jeremie had thought in his mind that everything is almost ready!” I nodded.

“That’s wonderful! Now, let’s have a little fun, while we wait. Can you think of what presents you’d like to see out there?”

“I’d rather be surprised,” I giggled. “What fun would it be to be expecting something so much, then opening all the presents to find the item desired not there, face falling?”

She let out a slight giggle of her own. “I see your point. Alright, then… what would _you_ like to do while we wait, seeing as this is your belated birthday party?”

I smiled. “Ever heard of 90 Second Alphabet?”

She glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. “It sounds familiar… refresh my memory, just in case.”

“I got it from this comedy show called _Whose Line is it Anyway?_ Sometimes my friends and I would use that to pass the time. We start with a random letter from the alphabet, and the sentence must start with that letter. Then the next sentence must start with the next letter, and so on until we circle back to the letter we started. Usually, my friends and I would take out the time limit, but restart with a new starter letter.”

Her gaze returned to me, a smile on her face. “That sounds like it could be lots of fun. What letter should we start on?”

We decided to start with the letter “C,” and the two of us launched into an enjoyable round, making each other laugh with different sentences. I almost lost track of time, again, but as we got back to “A,” in the second round, we were suddenly interrupted when the door opened. Behind it was none other than Ulrich, who gave me a knowing grin.

“It's time, Cassidy,” he announced, in a slightly sing-songy voice.

I jumped to my feet. “Awesome!”

He then walked in, with an ambitious grin on his face. “But you gotta let me blindfold you before I take you out there.”

“Sure, why not?” I smiled, getting super excited as I took off my glasses and closed my eyes.

His grin got even more mischievous as if Odd had given him a challenge to swap personalities, as he walked up behind me, pulled a blindfold out of his pocket, and gently wrapped it around my eyes, making sure to tie it behind my head somewhat snugly, but not too tightly. I then felt him place his hand into mine.

“Thanks for being my guide,” I said, keeping my glasses clipped to my pocket.

“Don’t mention it,” I heard Ulrich reply. “And I’ll go slow, so don’t worry.”

“Yeah, the last thing we need is to explain why several of Dr. Martinez’s photos on the wall just suddenly sank to the ground.”

“We can just say Odd wanted to redecorate the place,” he quipped, holding back a chuckle.

“Um…that wouldn’t be fair to Odd.” I took my free hand and rubbed my other arm with it.

“Nah, I wouldn’t really do that,” Ulrich reassured me, as he gently tugged on my hand, ready to take me out of Dr. Martinez’s bathroom. “I’d take the blame for being a terrible navigator.”

“This time, it would be justified, considering my behavior around you the last time I got angry at you,” I giggled, remembering the time he allegedly posted a photo and video file to the _Kadic Herrald_.

“That whole thing was dumb, anyway,” he retorted, even though I could somehow feel he was still grinning. “I don’t know what Odd thought when he did that. Of course, we both know how bad he is, with computers.”

“Don’t remind me. That vision, plus Mr. Delmas putting Aelita and me on Lyoko, possessing us both…” I shuddered.

His other hand softly rubbed my arm, as I felt him gently pull me out of the bathroom, and down the hallway. “At least that’s over and done with. And with XANA being as weak as he is, who knows when he’ll strike next, or even how strong he’ll be.”

“True. That was an exciting day, I have to admit.”

“Yeah. He’s not coming back from that one for a _long_ time.”

I nodded, still blinded. “I was so psyched when Franz told me he was still there.”

“Oh yeah…” His tone dipped a bit, and I could tell he was thinking about something. _At least he didn’t die, like in her vision… there was no way I was gonna let Princess live with that in her heart. Did I ever tell you how much I enjoy your visions, Cassidy?_

“Every day, now,” I smiled. “And I wasn’t either. Let me tell you. Sometimes when I went to the girls’ room before I unleashed the monster, I would make sure I was alone before sobbing for a while, scared Aelita would lose her father. Plus, I felt as though I would be a terrible psychic friend for letting that happen.”

He kept gently pulling me down the hallway, so I didn’t see his face fall, only to be replaced with a look of concern. I sometimes knew my reading his mind would catch him off-guard, but he learned to hide it better, each time. “I didn’t know you did that… but hey, at least we don’t ever have to worry about it happening for real. Franz is here to stay, and so is Aelita’s mom, too. Compared to what the monster showed happening before you turned up, I call that a win-win.”

“And I don’t have to be blamed for any ‘murder by inaction,’ either,” I beamed.

I felt him gently pull me down another hallway. “You never had to. In fact, no one was ever going to. Odd and I would’ve made sure of that. And you and I both know that neither Yumi, nor Aelita, nor even Einstein would do that.”

“True. I just couldn’t stand idly by while that happened. I just didn’t know what to do.” I felt my cheeks heat up, following him.

“Well… sometimes, there’s just nothing you _can_ do. When you’ve done everything else you can think of, and the enemy still boxes you in at every corner, sometimes you really can’t do anything at all. And your real friends will never blame you for that.”

“I just couldn’t let him do that to Aelita, but suddenly, I unleashed the monster, and look at our lives now,” I half-sang.

Even his mouth couldn’t resist curving upward at that. “Exactly. Odd was practically in heaven, during the assembly. It was cool to be a samurai again, even if it wasn’t on Lyoko.”

“And suddenly, his words after we took Peter Duncan to jail made sense: ‘That’s how it is for unsung heroes like ourselves. We’ve gotta act and win, and remain in the shadows. I guess that’s what being a true hero is all about! _But someday, everybody’s gonna know just how brave we are! And we’ll reap the benefits and rewards true heroes deserve!_ ’” I tried to mimic _mi novio_ , but bits of my own voice kept coming in.

For my efforts, Ulrich chuckled. “I always knew he’d rub off on you someday, Cassidy.”

“But what do you think?”

His breath hitched, as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand. “Well, uh… to tell you the truth, I… uh… didn’t know we’d have _that_ big of a fanbase… I mean, the entirety of Kadic wanted our autographs… and one of our fans even came all the way over to France, just to go to school with us… I, uh… some days, I, uh… feel like I’m… dreaming.”

“At first, after the teachers, only about four students wanted my own John Hancock. Suddenly, a bunch of students flooded me,” I giggled. “I still remember Camille’s gentle touch.”

Ulrich’s smile returned to his face, as he closed his eyes. “Couldn’t let you be by yourself, now could we? After all, next to Einstein and Princess, you’re practically the tactician. You don’t play just a tiny role in our group.”

“And sometimes, I still think I’m in that coma, suddenly dreaming of our newfound fame,” I nodded.

“I know that feeling,” he reassured me. “Even with our wings and everything, I mean, we gotta be, right?”

“If that earthquake was supposed to wake us up, it failed,” I giggled.

He chuckled, as well. “I’ll bet you I’m wearing my earplugs, that way Odd can’t wake me up with his snoring. I must’ve lent you a pair I had lying around, too.”

“Wouldn’t that make us deaf to anything?” I would have blinked.

“Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that… but this whole experience does sure feel like a dream. Getting kidnapped, taken on a trip, tested, pampered, experimented on, becoming ghosts… I almost feel like I’m going to wake up, and Jeremie’s gonna call me, telling me XANA’s activated a tower.”

“Slightly nightmarish at first, and slowly climbing upward to the light,” I muttered.

Before Ulrich could reply, I heard another voice come in, as I felt him pull me around another corner.

“There you two are!” It was unmistakably Odd. “Any longer and the balloons would’ve deflated!”

“Sorry about that, Odd, honey…” I reached out for him.

I felt him wrap his arms around me, pulling me into a warm hug, at the same time Ulrich let go of my hand. “Don’t worry about it, _mi novia…_ Ulrich was probably heightening the tension! You know _him!_ ”

“I know most of you like the back of my hand, _Novio_.” I would have winked.

“At least you’ve got enough hands!” He chuckled. “And Sam and Hunter are like thumbs! That’s because they’re always there to help the rest of us!”

“True, I guess… But that doesn’t matter,” I giggled.

I heard Yumi chuckle a bit, as well. “Besides, we’ve all got something big to show you.”

“Yes!”

I felt someone’s hand grab the bow on the back of the blindfold Ulrich had wrapped around my eyes, earlier.

“Get ready for a big surprise, Cat Girl!” Odd declared from nearby, which led me to think the hand was his.

In a few seconds, the bow was gently undone, and the blindfold was whipped off from my face, restoring my vision, as everyone threw their hands up into the air.

“HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, CASSIDY!!” they shouted.

I put on my glasses, smiling in glee. “Wow! This is incredible! Thanks, you guys!”

“You deserve it after skipping it over,” Jeremie grinned.

“You know we weren’t gonna go a whole year without celebrating it,” Aelita added, one of her famous soothing smiles on her face.

“And it would be a shame not to do something for you,” Yumi giggled.

“Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi are right!” Ulrich agreed. “So that’s why, while Georgina was pampering you in Dr. Martinez’s bathroom, the rest of us got together, and we got you a few things.”

“I thought I could hear Odd whooping and hollering as though he was on Lyoko,” I chuckled.

Odd grinned at me, mischievously. “Well, what if I was? I’m sure you’d love to spend the day on Lyoko, too, wouldn’t you, Cat Girl? Without XANA, it’s like a walk in the park!”

“Just as long as I have my DNA sequence code and the towers don’t lock me in,” I shot back at him playfully.

Yumi jumped in, a playful grin on her face, as well. “Don’t worry about that, Cassidy. Jeremie would make sure that didn’t happen. XANA’s probably not powerful enough to bring another Schyphozoa over, anyway.”

“Considering a lot of the monsters were destroyed when we weakened him, that’s a fantastic point,” Jeremie nodded.

“Now come on, belated birthday girl!” Ari announced. “Wouldn’t you like your cake?”

“Of course!” I giggled. “I haven’t had cake since a week and a couple days ago.”

Yumi placed her hand on her forehead. “Wow, has it really been that long?!”

“We all fell asleep in different beds in Lyoko HQ after Aelita’s parents went to the hotel,” I nodded. “You woke Jeremie up the next day by accident that time.”

Yumi chuckled, remembering that day nearly vividly. “I didn’t mean to accidentally tickle your foot, Jeremie. When I woke up, I didn’t know where my hands had fallen.”

“That’s okay, Yumi,” Jeremie replied, grinning as he adjusted his glasses. “I’m sorry I almost yelled at you, thinking you were Aelita.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time you mistook one person for another,” I deadpanned, almost cackling.

Jeremie folded his arms, grinning mischievously at me. “Like right now; I can’t help but mistake you for Odd!”

“Well, they are boyfriend and girlfriend,” Hunter jumped in, chuckling a bit. “He’s bound to rub off on her, and vice-versa. Next thing you know, he’ll be styling her hair, the same way he styles his own!”

“Hey… my scalp hates hairspray and hair gel in it for more than a day,” I said.

His eyes widened, the happiness on his face swiftly replaced with worry. “Oh… I didn’t know that…”

Odd grinned at him. “Oh, relax, Hunter! I’d probably just give her a third pigtail, that’s all!”

“It’s not as though you knew that part at all,” I reassured. “Now, come on. As misquoted by Marie Antoinette: Let us have cake!”

Hunter’s grin slowly returned to his face, while Odd’s smile increased. “Now that’s the Cat Girl I know and love! I’m starving!”

“And the belated birthday girl gets the first slice,” Angel announced. “We got a white cake with sugar frosting, with flowers on it.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic,” I smiled, seeing a plate with the flowers slide my way.

“After cake and presents, Max and I will make dinner,” Dr. Martinez grinned. “We’re thinking about making enchiladas.”

Right away, Angel’s, Gazzy’s, Nudge’s, Iggy’s, and Fang’s eyes widened. Yumi and I understood why but knew that with her mom’s help, the leader of the flock could come up with something delicious.

That was followed by the sound of a stomach growling. While we all expected that noise to come from Odd’s, most of us were surprised to see Jeremie react sheepishly to the sound.

“Sorry,” he lamented. “I don’t think any of us have had anything to eat, since our surgery. So enchiladas sound fantastic.”

“Actually, he’s right,” Hunter added, putting his hands over his own stomach. “That sounds really good, right about now.”

“That’s true,” I muttered, passing the untouched plate back, the thought of dessert before dinner making my tummy uneasy. “Maybe we could wait until after dinner to have cake.”

“That’s a good idea,” Angel agreed.

“I agree,” Aelita seconded.

Even though Odd was the only one to object, we all decided to wait until after dinner to eat the cake they got for me. And dinner didn’t take very long to make; only twenty-five minutes later, did Max and Dr. Martinez call us to come get our food. Odd hurriedly ran to fix his plate, while the rest of us leisurely followed behind, even though we were all equally hungry—well, maybe not as hungry as _mi novio_ , but close enough. Once we had all grabbed ourselves two enchiladas each and poured on the sauces of our choice, we gathered in Dr. Martinez’s living room to eat.

I couldn’t begin to tell you how tasty the meal was. Even if it was the first thing any of my friends and I had eaten, since our out-of-body experiences, it didn’t make it any less delicious for any of us. While we ate, we talked about our different experiences, harrowing escapes, and everything else we had been through, before and after our weakening of XANA. Max and her flock were quite impressed by everything we had done, even though they, like the whitecoats, already knew about us ahead of time. Still, it was fun to bring those stories back up, as even Sam and Hunter were amazed by our post-monster adventures.

After dinner, _then_ it was time for cake. Taking the flower slice again, I dug in, happy that it was so good. Naturally, Odd couldn’t wait to sink his teeth into the next slice, and once he did, he enjoyed its texture and flavor as well. Soon everyone had gotten at least one piece, and I could tell they enjoyed theirs as much as I did.

Angel giggled, looking at Fang’s face. Turning my head, I saw the equivalent of Ulrich had somehow gotten frosting on his cheek, sending me into a fit of cackles with an empty plate in my hand. Regaining my composure a little bit later, I took a napkin and gave it to him. “Here, Fang… You got a little something on your cheek there.”

He gently took it from my hand and wiped his face, catching where it landed. “Thanks.”

Max began to get a little jealous, as she watched Fang and I. “Hey…”

“It’s okay, Max. I was giving him a napkin.” I turned my attention to her. “I know you two are an item. Plus I’m with someone, too.”

Realizing this, the leader of the flock stood back. “R-right…”

“Besides, I’m not that kind to take other people’s loves,” I nodded.

“That’s right!” Odd walked over, placing his hand on my shoulder. “She’s in love with me, and I know she’d never make me think something was going on, between her and something else. I trust her!”

“Yeah, she’s definitely not that type of girl,” William agreed, coming up on my other side. “When she was my girlfriend, I made the mistake of thinking that she was planning to take another boy to a dance and that one bit me _big_ time. She was never unfaithful, at all.”

“Not to mention the fact that he yelled at me one time in American History. For a week, things went sideways, but once I got back into that class, the balance had shifted back to normal,” I nodded. “But still. The point is, as far as relationships go, I’m not stealing anybody.”

Max closed her eyes, pivoting her head downward, slightly. “Okay, okay, I get it. I’m sorry I suspected you.”

“It’s okay.”

With that little squabble out of the way, it wasn’t long before the entire cake had been eaten, and it soon became time for me to open the presents the others had bought me. Naturally, this made me incredibly excited, so I wasted no time diving in, head first.

A lot of wrapping paper later, and it turned out that the majority of my friends found a lot of pony plushies, recognizing each by name. “Aw…”

Another gift had a new green stuffed TY bunny. Curiosity piquing, I looked at the tag attached to its ear and gasped in awe. “It’s a Hippity…b-but...”

I looked at the box, and near the bottom of the front portion, the words “To Cassidy, from Sam” had been written.

“I knew you missed your own Hippity, so why not have a replica?” she asked, a warm, calming smile on her face.

Hugging it close, I felt a sense of safety enter my heart. I was incredibly taken aback by Sam’s kindness. It immediately reminded me of the day, back in the School, when we were plotting Plan 120, and how afraid I was of bursting in on her, during her rub, massage, and bath, as I feared what she would do to me if I were alone with her. Odd was right; she wasn’t out for my blood at all. She just wanted to be good friends. “Sam, thank you…”

Then Sister handed me her gift, grinning excitedly as I took it from her. Without wasting any time, the wrapping paper was off in a flurry of ripping and tearing, and the box underneath was soon revealed. To my immense surprise, it was a beautiful necklace with a heart charm, similar to the one I wore at the Subdigitals concert.

“I couldn’t make up my mind, so I chose that,” Sister giggled, gently whisking it from my hands and placing it over my head, around my neck. “And would you look at that! It matches that streak in your hair.”

Aelita smiled warmly, as she noticed how well the necklace complimented my hair. “She’s right; it looks beautiful on you, Cassidy.”

My cheeks heated up. “Wow…” Her words of praise started to erode away my consciousness, as I fought to keep myself awake and upright. But luckily, I remained standing.

“Here, Cass!” William was next, offering me a gift with blue and purple wrapping paper. “Open mine, next!”

Taking the gift, I made quick work of the wrapping paper, before my face rose when I noticed the first part. It was a brand-new portable CD player, complete with headphones and batteries. It was a really nice brand, too, with excellent anti-skip protection.

“And look underneath it!” William prodded me.

Gently moving the CD player’s box out of the way, I beamed when I noticed there were four CDs underneath: Panic! At the Disco’s _A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out_ , one of Bon Jovi’s _Have a Nice Day_ album, Meat Loaf’s _Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell_ , and the fourth was Journey’s _Greatest Hits_ album from 1988.

“Wow…” I murmured in awe.

Then Hunter offered me his gift. “Here’s one you can open next if you like.”

I nodded, accepting the gift. It was a little big, but nothing stopped me from opening it. Wrapping paper aside, I found it to be a soft, fuzzy blanket, and my eyes widened when I noticed its design and the wrapper that surrounded it. The blanket itself had a mostly purple design with pink streaks, decorated with pink snowflake-like stars, each of which was surrounded by smaller, white snowflake-like stars, as well. There was no mistaking it; it was based off from Twilight Sparkle.

My joy caused my breath to hitch. “Hunter… Tha-thank you…”

Hunter beamed, warmly and excitedly. “Odd told me you liked _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,_ and that Twilight Sparkle was one of your favorites. So I thought I’d get you something that’d really come in handy.”

I immediately set the blanket down, leaped up, and wrapped my arms around the black-haired boy, hugging him excitedly. I heard him giggle as he returned the hug, softly rubbing my back as well.

“I’m glad you like it!” I heard him whisper.

I nodded. “Yes! I do…”

He kept softly and slowly rubbing my back, glad that I had enjoyed the gift he got me, and I could hear him think of how pleased he was about it. _You were right, Odd. That_ was _the perfect gift for her!_

But I kept that to myself, as I didn’t want to ruin the moment. “Thanks, Hunter,” I smiled.

“It’s my pleasure,” he replied, smiling equally.

Shortly after, we broke the embrace, just as Kiwi trotted up to me with a gift in his mouth. “Hmm! Mmph gph…”

“Kiwi,” I giggled, taking it from him, “you shouldn't speak with your mouth full.”

Kiwi yipped, sounding as if he let out a slight chuckle. “Sorry. Cassidy, that’s for you!”

I opened it, to find a funny thing inside: He had gotten me a pink dog dish. “Uh…”

“You licked my own bowl when we were merged together, so I'm giving you your own,” he grinned.

Jeremie shot me a surprised look. “How does he remember that?!”

“How in the hay should I know?” I rebounded.

Aelita looked like she had a bit of an idea. “Since Jeremie sent you both to Lyoko when both of your DNA were merged together, the Supercomputer must have made Kiwi immune to Returns to the Past, just like you.”

“That could be. Or, and this is a different theory, the monster showed Kiwi that I did,” I blushed.

That surprised Aelita a bit. “That’s true. I didn’t think of that.”

“It's okay, Aelita,” I smiled.

“Either one could have tipped off Kiwi,” Jeremie admitted. “I did have to create an additional, temporary virtual envelope to virtualize you onto Lyoko, and that could have left lasting effects on the exceptions for the Return to the Past program. However, since Kiwi did see the monster, along with the rest of us, there’s always the possibility that he has more brain power than we give him credit for…”

“Ya see, Einstein?! I told you Kiwi was special,” Odd agreed. “He can sniff out XANA’s ghosts, and even find me halfway across Kadic!”

“I was surprised to see him making a beeline to the gym with socks in his mouth,” I giggled, “at least at first.”

“I thought he just followed the smell of Odd’s feet,” Ulrich remembered, “but after that lotion you gave him, now I don’t know what to think.”

“It's okay, Samurai,” I grinned. “We’ve all made mistakes.”

“Remember that day we swapped bodies?” Yumi recalled next. “It’s almost like he knew that it was you in my body, when he woke you up, first.”

“And that was before I could read animal minds,” I smiled.

“That settles it, then!” Odd jumped back in, picking up his diggity-dog, and nuzzling his face with his own. “When we get back to Kadic, the next time we go to the factory, whether we scan Sam and Hunter once, or send them to Lyoko with us, I say we finally send Kiwi to Lyoko, with them! If we ever need to find anyone on the Internet, I’ll bet you my little diggity-dog can sniff them out easy!”

“That sounds fair,” I nodded.

Jeremie adjusted his glasses, staring at the floor. “I don’t know… I’ve never actually tried testing the Supercomputer to see if it can create virtual envelopes for animals, before.”

“Ulrich seemed about ready to try one time.” I winked at the boy in question.

“Hey,” he folded his arms. “That was because Einstein needed a guinea pig. I wouldn’t do that again, now. If Odd really wants Kiwi to go, we oughta make sure it’s gonna work, first.”

“True, Samurai. Plus, I think you were also thinking about avenging your room and bedsheets, too,” I giggled.

“Well, yeah… but at least you don’t have to worry about sleeping in wet sheets, every time you or Odd forget to take him out for a walk!” Ulrich retorted.

“Don’t forget,” Yumi jumped in, grinning knowingly at her boyfriend, “you also didn’t know him nearly as well as you do, now.”

“Uh—duh—um… Yeah, you're right,” Samurai found himself rehearsing his vowels after that one.

“Anyway, Cat Girl. Now you can finally sleep in peace tonight,” Odd smiled.

“Yeah, with all the ponies and a new Hippity, you can bet the ranch that I’ll sleep peacefully.” I beamed from ear to ear, like I was floating on air.

“And you’ll have a soft, cuddly blanket that’ll keep you warm, too,” Hunter added, grinning.

“Oh, most definitely. I didn't like the feel of that blanket that we slept in, when we were in that big room at the School,” I shuddered slightly, but smiled all the same.

“I remember feeling that, when we were having our out-of-body experience when I first realized where I was,” Yumi added, looking a bit unsettled. “Maybe it was because they took our hospital gowns off before they put us under them.”

“I was referring to before they transferred us to that bigger room, Yumi,” I muttered, getting the feeling that she went way off the mark.

She blinked, surprise overtaking her features. “Oh, you’re right. That bigger room was better, but it still felt a little strange. But I agree, the room we were put into first did have terrible blankets.”

“They felt itchy, at times,” I nodded.

Aelita shrugged, raising an eyebrow. “I thought they felt okay, but I barely felt mine brush up against my skin. It did keep me warm, which was nice.”

Georgina walked over a concerned look on her face. “I’m sorry you felt that way. I’ll admit, the School didn’t have the softest blankets, at least not in your first room, but they were mainly picked because they were functional. At least you won’t have to worry about them, anymore.”

“I don’t know what felt worse to me,” Hunter added, shrugging as well, “having to sleep under that, or having to sleep with my clothes on.”

“Odd’s pants were comfy to sleep in, I give him that,” I smiled.

“Better believe it!” Odd grinned, happy that I liked them. “They always feel good when I wear them, so naturally they’d make you feel good, too, Cat Girl!”

“Such a nice texture, too. I'm still surprised that they fit me, despite the fact that I'm older than you and have no waist,” I blinked.

“It’s simple,” Jeremie theorized, holding out his hands. “They probably have a stretchy waistband that has a soft inside layer, that way they don’t squeeze your body.”

“That's not the case. I checked that out when I forgot to give Odd his pants back,” I pointed out. “Plus, I'm taller than him.”

Jeremie blinked. “Oh. Then I don’t have any other theories. Maybe they’re just special pants.”

“It could be,” I shrugged.

“Ulrich, Aelita and I went out to buy them, the week before we went on that first flight with the Skid,” Odd commented. “Maybe it’s because they were on sale?”

“You used to wear these pants every day,” I protested. “I ‘borrowed’ them, remember?”

“So? Maybe I stretched them out for you?” Odd suggested, next.

“It could be, but I just don't know,” I blushed.

“He could have bought a girl’s pair, by mistake,” Yumi chuckled lightheartedly, with a grin.

“These are boy sized.” However, I couldn't help but giggle.

“Maybe it’s because you’re both scrawny,” Ulrich jumped in, grinning mischievously.

“Well, both of you are similar in size,” Aelita added. “Maybe some of your clothes might fit Odd, too, Cassidy.”

The thought of what Aelita and Ulrich said made me harken back to my weight on the scale. _“No soy flaca, soy esbelta,”_ I muttered uncomfortably. While I knew Ulrich was just joking, especially since that was something he loved saying to Odd, after being scared by how much lighter I had gotten, I didn’t need to be told that.

That was when Yumi slowly wrapped her arm around me, softly and slowly rubbing my back at the same time. “Cassidy, are you okay? He didn’t mean it like that, you know. None of us know why Odd’s pants fit you so well.”

“I found out how much I weighed today, and let's just say that I'm surprised at and scared of the results,” I muttered.

Concern washing over her, she leaned in closer, still softly and slowly rubbing my back. “Do you wanna talk about it here?”

“Uh… no…” I trembled.

“Let’s go to the bathroom,” she replied, calmly, as she led me back down the hallway. “We can talk in there.”

“Thanks, Yumi,” I nodded.

Before we could go too far, Sister walked up to us.

“Can I come, too?” she asked, looking concerned.

“Sure, Sissi,” Yumi replied. “Cassidy won’t mind.”

“No, I don't mind at all,” I agreed.

The three of us walked down the series of hallways to the bathroom, silently. As we walked in, Yumi turned on the light, before Sister followed me in, closing the door behind herself.

“Okay, it turns out that I'm seventy-three pounds, very underweight for my age,” I muttered, bracing for impact.

Instead of gasping, freaking out, or even chastising me for my diet, something I’d probably expect out of either Yolanda or Rosa, Yumi and Sister were comforting and supportive. Yumi put her arm around me again, just like she had done in the living room, and gave me a gentle smile.

“It’s okay,” she soothed. “Maybe you lost weight during your coma, or from everything we went through, back at the School.”

“Those theories are sound, but when Ulrich made that joke, I felt terrible—”

Yumi began to soothingly rub my back, stopping me in mid-sentence. “Ulrich didn’t know you had lost weight. None of us knew until you just told Sissi and I. If he knew what had happened, and how it’s bothering you, I don’t think he would have said that.”

“I got distracted by our other conversations that I didn't even get the chance to say so,” I nodded.

Sister walked up to my other side and began to softly rub my back as well, in time with Yumi. “It’s okay, dear sister. We can tell them as soon as you’re ready to. But they won’t get mad at you, either.”

“Okay… I just hope that that joke doesn't get said at me,” I nodded, relaxing.

“C’mon, Cassidy,” Yumi reassured me. “Ulrich’s better than that. Odd, too. If they know it bothers you, they won’t make it into a joke.”

“True,” I agreed.

“It seems to me that everyone will be more concerned about your sudden weight loss, than anything else,” Sister added. “You know Odd might try to make you laugh, but as your boyfriend, he of all people should know what makes you laugh, and what offends you.”

“Yeah. He only forgot one time,” I blinked, “and I spent the entire day angry at the wrong guy.”

“Odd has his moments.” Yumi started walking her knuckles up and down my back, between my wings, next. “At least he told you the truth, later on.”

And then a thought hit her. _And to think, that could’ve been an embarrassing picture of me, that Milly and Tamiya published..._

“To this day, I don't know what made him switch women,” I said.

“Maybe he thought it’d make you laugh?” Yumi’s tone became a bit lighthearted before it returned to normal. “Anyway, after you got your revenge, I’m pretty sure he’s never gonna do that again, especially after what Ulrich almost did to him.”

“Plus it was the most logical. I don't know how you would have gotten a photo of them coming out of the shower. So many questions…”

“I probably would have paid one of the boys to do it,” she replied. “Jim would’ve caught me for sure if I had walked in there.”

“Not to mention what your parents would have thought. I—”

Yumi closed her eyes, shaking her head. “My parents would’ve thought the worst. If they knew I was doing that, they’d wonder what had gotten into me.”

“I know that the movie I'm referencing took place in China, but I think that they would have told you, ‘Dishonor on you! Dishonor on—’” A hand clapped over my mouth.

“Shhh…” Yumi’s brows lowered, slightly. “I don’t even want to think about how much honor my family would lose if I were caught doing that.”

Behind her hand, I nodded. I was being ridiculous. I didn’t realize Yumi was going to take it that way.

“Lucky for you, dear sister, you had a better revenge. I laughed when I saw the video of Ulrich and Odd,” Sister giggled.

That softened Yumi’s face, as well. “So did I. I never knew Ulrich was that good of a singer, not to mention Odd.”

“Especially with songs sung by women,” Sister agreed.

“When Ulrich hit that Cher song,” Yumi started giggling, “I almost wasn’t sure if I was hearing Ulrich, or Cher, singing.”

Behind her hand, the corners of my mouth curved upward, feeling like cackling.

Sister nearly started cracking up at that thought. “And what about Odd? His voice was even higher than Celtic Woman’s!”

Yumi chuckled, removing her hand from my mouth. “Who knew he could sing in Gaelic!”

“Don't forget Ulrich's solo with Faith Hill,” I cackled.

That got both Yumi and Sister laughing.

“Hearing ‘Love is a Sweet Thing’ never made me laugh so hard until I heard Ulrich try to sing it!” my geisha friend tried to squeeze out, in-between laughs.

“I was amazed how high Ulrich hit that note with ‘Be My Lover’ before the rap breakdown and before the bridge into the final chorus,” I smiled. “If it weren't for the fact that I was recording the video in the first place, I would have dropped my camera.”

“I’ll bet!” Yumi laughed. “Maybe I should ask him to sing ‘Sweet Dreams’ to me before I go to sleep. I’m sure he would.”

“Or ‘These Dreams’ by Heart? It's a beautiful song. I heard that the sisters wrote that for a fan with cancer. Sadly, unlike your cousin, Sister, the patient met her end,” I tried to be tactful.

“That’s terrible,” Sister’s voice lowered a bit, before bouncing back up. “But it is a beautiful song. I have it on my Walkman.”

“Maybe he could do a duet with Odd,” Yumi tried to lighten the mood once more. “He _can_ play guitar, after all, so he could be Nancy.”

“True,” I smiled.

“Now, come on! We still have a party to get back to,” Sister smiled.

So, we did. With the thoughts of our first visit to the Ice Sector Replika fresh on our minds, the three of us left the bathroom and returned to the living room, where the party continued. And let me tell you, that whole entire day was one of the best belated birthdays I’ve ever had. But that moment of happiness was great, as things were about to get even more interesting, from the next day forward.


	12. The Phone Calls and the Chip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s and the plot.

We had spent the night at Dr. Martinez’s, after the wonderful belated birthday party my friends had thrown for me. While some of us were able to get something close to a good night’s sleep, I had a bit of a hard time doing that. Even with Aelita’s, Yumi’s, Sister’s, and Georgina’s help, I still found it hard to nod off. So when I finally did wake up, after getting something at least within the ballpark of six hours of sleep, my body wasn’t too happy about it.

“Max?” I groaned, a more natural grogginess in my voice. “What time is it?”

She smiled gently. “Ten-thirty in the morning, Cassidy. You’re a real heavy sleeper.”

“Kinda hard to sleep peacefully after being kidnapped for a week and two to three days…” I yawned, stretching my arms a little. “I think it’s somewhat justified.”

“I understand the feeling, especially when Angel got kidnapped by the School so long ago. I still regret sleeping in that abandoned cabin for too long, delaying our rescue efforts…”

“You, Nudge, and Fang were hungry, then exhaustion hit you. It’s hard to fault you for what happened,” I nodded.

“Yeah. You’re right,” she smiled. “Everyone’s in the living room, eating breakfast. Hungry?”

I grinned. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

With that, the two of us left our beds behind, as Max led me out into the kitchen. As I walked in, Dr. Martinez caught my eye, a smile gracing her features as she watched me walk in. She had just finished making an omelet, passing the plate to Hunter, as I entered.

“Good morning, Cassidy,” she greeted. “Did you sleep well?”

“A little bit. Still a little out-of-place where I’m at.” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

She giggled a bit. “That’s understandable. After what I’ve heard about the beds in the School, you’re probably still getting used to sleeping on something better.”

“Probably, but I think being kidnapped from where I was normally, then smuggled to a semi-familiar climate, is still throwing me for a loop,” I blinked.

“I can see how that might make things a bit complicated,” she nodded understandingly. “I’d give it a few days. You’ll probably be back in France before you know it.”

“I’d love that very much. I mean, sure, I could see my parents again, but—I don’t know…”

“That’s up to you. They’re halfway across the country, aren’t they?”

“In Illinois, with my little sister,” I admitted. “I’m still feeling a bit lopsided right now.”

She nodded. “Why don’t you have something for breakfast, first? That’ll help recharge your brain. Your friends are all waiting for you at the table. What can I make you?”

“Maybe a ham-and-cheese omelet with bacon bits in it, and with bacon on the side, please? It’s been quite a while since I had one,” I smiled a bit.

At that, Hunter whirled around in his chair to face me, a grin, one that I hadn’t seen on him, on his face. “These are really good, Cassidy! Dr. Martinez makes one of the best omelets I’ve ever tasted!”

The doctor giggled, modestly. “It’s a family recipe. It’s only the way I’ve done it for several years. Isn’t that right, Max?”

Max nodded, a smile appearing on her face.

“Now, come on, Cat Girl!” Odd’s voice wafted through my ears. “Get some breakfast.”

It only took Dr. Martinez about seven or eight minutes to make up another omelet, just the way I wanted, and I was soon sitting at the table, next to _mi novio_ , who had saved me a seat.

“So what’s the plan today?” I asked after taking a few bites, smiling at how good my omelet tasted.

“Well,” Max, who had also taken a seat shortly after I had, placed her fork down onto her plate, “I was thinking we should check the twelve of you over, to make sure the whitecoats didn’t do anything more than just inject bird DNA into your bodies. Especially you, Cassidy, since they seemed to pay special attention to you.”

“That’s true,” Yumi agreed. “They kept comparing her to Angel, and saying her abilities were similar, but what if they did something to all of us before we had our out-of-body experiences? Like how they gave Cassidy a sample of Aelita’s DNA.”

“I guess it has something to do with my powers, and I’m sitting _right next to you,_ Yumi,” I protested, feeling as useless as a dirty sock.

She gave me an apologetic look. “ _Gomenasai_ , Cassidy. Continue.”

“It’s okay,” I sighed, trying my hardest not to sound agitated. “I think they are interested in my powers and my bonds with everyone else.”

“The monster must have shown them everything they know about you,” Jeremie hypothesized. “Your psychic powers, clairvoyance, and how highly we all think of you. They must have singled you out, out of our entire group, because of everything you’re capable of and have done in the past.”

“I really wish that I wasn’t the weird-one-out,” I muttered.

“Think of it this way, Cat Girl,” Odd tried to reassure me, “they think you’re special. The rest of us, we’ve got zilch compared to you. We just stand there and look cool, while you’re the ringleader.”

I lowered my head to my breakfast. “That wasn’t what I even meant, Odd, sweetheart. I’m not the ringleader. I sometimes don’t know how to lead anything. I just wish I wasn’t so unique at times. Keep the powers, but downgrade the popularity.”

That made everyone at the table gasp, and send surprised looks in my direction. This was followed by Odd putting his arm around me, softly running his fingers up and down the center of my back, between my wings.

“But why, Cat Girl?” he interjected. “You’ve gotten us out of so many jams with your powers. You’re Cassidy the Magnificent! Why would you want to lose that?!”

“I know that, but before I came to Kadic, back in the States, I wasn’t singled out. I was more of a Jane Doe than anything. Sure, I had friends, but I wasn’t popular by any means. When I found out I had psychic powers, when I moved to France, without knowing it, I felt special for a little while, but the monster was lurking—”

“Forget about the monster, okay?” Ulrich jumped in. “Just think of how many times you’ve saved us with them. Stop thinking about the negative stuff.”

“I just feel overwhelmed with all the ‘You’re special this, you’re special that’ stuff,” I blinked. “That’s what I was going to say next.”

“We have kinda been pouring that on a bit too thick, haven’t we?” Aelita inquired, smiling calmly at me.

I nodded, closing my eyes. “Like an escape artist’s drowning tank filled with nothing but syrup.”

Hunter held his arms out at an angle. “Well, at least it’s better than telling you that your powers are terrible, and how bad things are, because of them.”

“HUNTER!!” The majority of the table yelled.

He froze in place, covering his head with his hands while gritting his teeth. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry! B-Bad choice of words!”

As I felt his words sting, Yumi gently wrapped her arm around me, while Aelita wrapped hers around Hunter, calmly and soothingly telling him that while his heart was in the right place, that wasn’t exactly the best choice of words, but that she was sure I knew he meant well.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Yumi soothed, hoping to help me relax. “Hunter didn’t mean anything bad by that. He just didn’t say the right thing, that’s all.”

“I know, but it still harkens me back to when Ulrich—”

“But Hunter doesn’t think that, and neither does Ulrich,” Yumi calmly interjected, as she started to softly rub my back, again. “He just wanted to make you feel better.”

“I understand. Plus I can’t blame him for trying. We’ve only known him for almost a week and a half,” I nodded, relaxing as I returned to my omelet.

“I’m sorry, Cassidy,” Hunter apologized again, looking somewhat worried, as I noticed Aelita was softly rubbing his back, between his wings, as well. “I really didn’t mean to say that like that. What I meant was that we didn’t want you to think negatively of your powers. I’ve seen what they can do, and I personally think they’re incredible. I almost wish _I_ could do something nearly as cool.”

“It’s okay, Hunter. I know you meant well,” I smiled a bit, still enjoying the meal.

“See?” I heard Aelita soothingly reassure him, “she’s not angry at you.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he replied. “Sometimes I’m terrible with words. That, and I just wasn’t thinking.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I say the right words,” I giggled.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Aelita gave me a warm, closed-eye smile, threatening to laugh as well. “We always understand what you mean, no matter what.”

“True,” I smiled. “But please promise me, everyone, that when I am in the room, present, that you don’t—um…”

“You’re right,” Yumi immediately picked up on where I was going, concern painting her face. “We can’t keep talking about you like you’re not in the room when you really are. It’s not very nice of us.”

“Yeah, since it happened twice so far. I feel as unimportant as a five-year-old in an adult conversation when you do that.”

“I guess, sometimes we get so caught up in the moment, that we tend to forget,” Ulrich suggested.

“I’m not XANA, Ulrich. Y’all don’t need to treat me as though I am him,” I nodded.

“We weren’t trying to,” he replied, raising an eyebrow as if he was surprised I was comparing myself to the A.I.

“You kept referring to me as ‘she/her,’ the same way we all referred to XANA as ‘he/him.’ Sure, there are differences, but still.” I finished the omelet and picked up one of the slices of bacon.

“But we would _never_ treat you like you were XANA,” Jeremie corrected me. “You’re much better than that.”

But that gave him an idea. “Speaking of XANA, things have been getting a bit too quiet, lately. I know we severely weakened him, but doesn’t it seem the least bit strange that he hasn’t tried _anything_ since we were back in France?”

“Wait. We just got our cell phones back,” Aelita interjected, eyes widening. “I could call Daddy and see about the shop back home.” She reached into her pocket, retrieving the device, and typing a number.

“Aelita,” I grinned at my former first roommate, “I know I’ve said it before, but you’re a genius.”

“Maybe I should call my father, too. Hmph! I forgot all about doing so when I got my mobile back,” Sister jumped in, her eyes widening.

“We should all check in with our parents,” Ulrich pointed out, using his fork.

“That’s a great idea!” A grin overtook Jeremie’s face. “That way we can tell them where we are, and maybe they can help us get back to France.”

“My father could try to afford to get us back to Kadic!” Sister smiled.

Sure, that sounded like a great idea, but the thought of _how_ Mr. Delmas would get all of us back to Kadic was what worried me the most. I was sure he was going to want to fly us back, and Sister probably didn’t tell him how I was with planes. I don’t even want to fly using my new wings; why would I want to fly on an airplane, or _any_ kind of plane, at all?

And she must’ve realized it, too, because the next thing I knew, she stopped dialing her father’s number on her cell phone, and turned a concerned look to me. “Sorry, dear sister. Maybe I can get him to pay for a cruise ship?”

“That might be the better option because I went to France by boat,” I nodded.

“Then that’s how we’ll all get back,” Yumi grinned at me. “It’ll be just like the day you first came to Kadic.”

“Thanks, girls,” I smiled.

“Of course!” Sister wrapped her arm around me. “You didn’t like your flight over here, so why should your return trip be just as bad?”

“That’s why I would like either a cruise ship or a boat,” I blinked.

“Why not a luxury cruise?” Odd jumped in. “The return of the conquering heroes should be done with style! Maybe we all should get pampered, on our way back! Yeah!”

“And maybe Georgina would like to come with us,” Yumi said.

“I would love to!” Georgina replied, happily. “France is a beautiful country, and I would love to join you all.”

“Thank you, Georgina,” I smiled, happy.

“Let’s see what my father has to say,” Sister returned her attention to her cell phone, finished dialing Mr. Delmas’ number, and placed the phone against her ear.

Just as she did that, Aelita smiled and clicked hers off. “Daddy and Mommy are so relieved to hear that we all are okay.”

“That’s always good news, but did you tell them what happened to me,” I asked, worry skipping into my heart.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” she soothed. “I didn’t tell them. I thought it might be best if you told them when you were ready. It’d probably sound better coming from you, anyway.”

“ _Gracias_ , Aelita. It’s not going to be easy at first.” I smiled appreciatively, even though I knew Aelita could see the fear it tried in vain to cover. I wasn’t ready to tell them just yet, and I really wasn’t sure how long it would be before I was.

“It’s not going to be easy for all of us,” Kaitlyn agreed. “First we get smuggled, experimented on, and how are we going to explain this to our parents?”

“They’ll probably be glad to see us safe and sound,” William suggested, holding his cell phone in his right hand, “but when we tell them how we got our wings, they’ll think we’re something out of a horror movie.”

My teeth clenched as a distressed sound wafted through my nose. “I don’t even wanna _think_ about what my parents are gonna say, let alone Dad!”

“And he’s probably not even gonna let _me_ enroll!” Hunter added. “He’ll take one look at me, and probably have Jim take me away, or worse, have me deported!”

I let out a squeal of distress. The thought of Hunter getting possibly sent back to America bothered me greatly. I didn’t want to lose a new friend.

“But won’t they be more excited to see that we’re safe and sound?” Jeremie held out his hands. “They know we were abducted. Up until now, they didn’t know where we were taken; they probably assumed we were taken to a remote part of Paris. Our new wings and Kiwi’s ability to talk might take some getting used to for them, as it will for us, but we’re still the same people, even without them. Once they hear the entire story, I’m sure they’ll be more than happy that we’re safe and sound. They might even take care of the whitecoats.”

I tried to calm down after that. I kept trying to think that they would be more happy to see us, than shun us for suddenly showing up with wings on our backs. I really wanted to be wrong about how they’d take our new wings, but… the fear that I would be right was just too great.

Sister seemed to talk on the phone a long time. I could tell her father sounded overjoyed to hear her voice again, and after telling him that not only she but I was alright as well, she started to ask if he could help them get back to France, keeping my preference in mind. At first, it sounded as though he didn’t give her many options, but she was quite the sweet-talker, even if she didn’t sound angry, or snobby.

Soon, she passed her phone to me. “Here, Daddy wants to talk to you, too.”

Gingerly, I placed the device on my ear. “H-hi, uh—Dad.”

 _“Cassidy, dear,”_ I heard Mr. Delmas reply at the other end, sounding relieved. _“Sissi told me that you were safe and sound as well, but I just had to hear your voice to make sure. I’m very relieved to know you all are safe. Did they mistreat you at all?”_

Knowing he would see through my weak defenses as well as Yumi could, I took a deep breath. “Well… kinda… they did work us… they gave us tests… but two of them saved us… Jeb Batchhelder and Georgina Markson. They had eight other people help them, too, Max and her flock, and Ari.”

 _“That’s wonderful!”_ Mr. Delmas sounded even more relieved, at least at first. _“Tell Mr. Batchhelder and Ms. Markson that they have my utmost gratitude.”_

Then he paused for a few seconds. _“And did you say you were also saved by someone named Max, ‘and her flock?’”_

“Remember when I would read that book series?” I tittered nervously.

 _“Yes, I believe it was called_ Maximum Ride?” he sounded confused.

“Well, um… the leader is named Max, and her flock members are Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman ‘Gazzy,’ Angel, and Total, their part-bird part-dog,” I answered.

There was another short pause, intensifying my nerves slightly, before Mr. Delmas came back on, sounding slightly surprised. _“What a very interesting group of people. Especially their, um… bird-dog hybrid. Very well. Give them my utmost gratitude, as well.”_

 _“Mr. Delmas, Mr. Klotz wants to talk to you about something,”_ a new voice said faintly.

“Dad, was that J-Jim?” I asked.

 _“Yes,”_ Mr. Delmas replied. _“It appears Mr. Klotz wishes to speak with me, regarding an unknown matter.”_

“Wait, Dad, do you think I could um… talk to Jim? I’m sure that he would love to hear one of his cadets’ voices,” I smiled.

 _“Why yes, yes, of course,”_ he answered. _“I will certainly do that. Is there anything else you wish to discuss before I hand you over to Mr. Morales?”_

“Only that our trip back don’t include air travel…considering um…”

 _“Oh yes,”_ he spoke up, sensing what he thought was the end of my sentence. _“Elisabeth has told me of your preference. She hasn’t gone into very many details, but I will say that I do understand, and I would rather not worry you on your trip back to Paris any more than your trip to the United States had, even if the circumstances are entirely different. So rest assured, Cassidy, if I am able to pay your way back to Kadic Academy, you can be absolutely sure it will not involve air travel.”_

“Thanks, Daddy,” I smiled.

_“It is my pleasure, my dear. Now, if you will excuse me, I must attend to Mr. Klotz. I will hand you over to Mr. Morales, now. I am very relieved to hear that you, Sissi, and everyone else with you is safe and sound, and will arrange for your safe return if it is within my control. Please give Sissi my best, as well.”_

Soon, a gruff voice entered my ears. _“’Yello? McGuire, is that you?”_

“Yes! It is, Captain Jim. It’s so good to hear your voice again,” I smiled excitedly.

He instantly cheered up. _“Cadet! It’s great to hear yours, as well. They weren’t treating you too badly, were they? I’m itchin’ to give them a piece of my mind, after what they did to your Captain Jimbo!”_

“Not too badly, but one of them ripped open some emotional wounds,” I blinked. “I almost had the upper hand when he snapped, but thanks to my friends and some of the other w—scientists…—he was dealt with.”

 _“It sounds like I’ve taught you and your friends well,”_ I could almost see him smiling smugly at the other end. _“And it’s good that you stayed strong, McGuire. You give ’em an inch, and they’ll knock you right off your feet!”_

“That’s true. He really was mean. Ripping open emotional wounds was one thing, but he did knock me to the ground when he snapped. However, we’re away from that place, and I’d rather not talk about it for the moment,” I grinned.

 _“That’s fine; I understand,”_ he replied, reassuringly. _“It’s better that they got you away from there, anyway. It’s far better to fall back, regroup, and decide on your next course of action. You know what they say about the one who fights and… and, uh… fights… uhh…“_

“Okay…?” I giggled.

_“Yes! Anyway, you and the other eleven ought to stay in a safe place, until we’re able to come get you. Don’t want those bozos findin’ you out before we can get them all taken care of. No one messes with Captain Jimbo and gets away with it!”_

“You’re right, Captain Jim, I am so relieved to hear that you’re alive. For a while, I got so worried about you.”

 _“There there, Cadet. It takes more than a sneak-attack, and a little sedative, to take me out. They’re lucky they got me from behind. Otherwise,_ they _would’ve been the ones to find out what the carpet tasted like!”_

Even though I’m sure Jim probably said that to try and make me feel better, all I could think about was the sound of him hitting the floor, after the Erasers sedated him, the first time. And that just made me a bit nervous.

“H-hey! I think I might pass you to Jeremie! He would _love_ to talk to you,” I tittered.

That caught Jeremie off-guard, as his head immediately snapped in my direction, his eyes widened, and he started waving his palms in front of his chest, trying to tell me that was a horrible idea.

“He’s my camp-mate after all. Maybe you would love to talk some advice to him, too, Jim,” I blinked, hiding my laughter with silent hisses.

 _“You okay there, cadet?”_ Jim sounded as though he was trying to sense something in my voice. _“Those bozos didn’t just show up at your front door, did they?”_

Now _I_ was caught off-guard. “No, they haven’t. We’re well-guarded. I just remembered the sound of you hitting the floor. It wasn’t pleasant to me.”

 _“Oh.”_ Just the tone of his voice told me everything I needed to know. _“Well… that’s all in the past now, cadet. Don’t you worry about that. They might’ve caught me with my pants down that time, but you can’t fool your old pal Jimbo twice, and brag to your friends about it!”_

“True. I did trick ya one time,” I giggled. “Those Hornets really taught me a lesson.”

_“Oh yeah. You can’t let them get the upper hand. Their wings are so loud, you can hear ’em from a mile away. You gotta surprise ’em the same way they surprise you. Fight flying with flying.”_

“That’s very good advice, Jim. And I can’t wait to see you again,” I smiled.

_“Agreed. The sooner you and the other cadets get back here, the better. Everyone will be glad to know the twelve of you are safe and sound.”_

“Yep,” I nodded. “Would you like to talk to anyone else before we hang up?”

_“Nah, that’ll about do it, unless someone else wants to talk to me.”_

I covered the mouthpiece. “Anyone else wanna talk to him?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Are you all sure?” I asked, feeling bad that only I got to talk to Jim.

That was when Yumi leaned forward. “I’ll talk to him.”

I smiled and handed her Sister’s phone. “It’s Jim.”

She smiled warmly as she took the phone from me, before placing it against her own ear. “Hello, Jim! It’s Yumi. I’m glad to hear you’re doing well, too.”

Jeremie glared at me. “Why did you recommend that _I_ should talk to him?!” he hissed.

“I panicked, okay? He talked about tasting carpet, and it triggered my—”

Jeremie’s eyebrows raised. “Oh. T-that’s okay. I had no idea what you and Jim were even talking about.”

“It’s okay, but I was having trouble about what to do,” I panted.

“Well, at least you told him what was going on,” Ulrich reassured me. “Maybe a little signal next time?”

“Like ‘I need to use the green toilet’ during that drug PSA?” I asked helpfully.

He raised his right index finger. “That could work, but it might surprise whoever you’re talking to.”

“Or maybe I could say something different. Like ‘ _CHiPs_ is on, and Ponch just said the wrong thing in ASL?’”

Jeremie looked down at the table, scratching his chin. “That might work. It’s a bit of an obscure reference, but you can always pretend to explain it later on if whoever you’re talking to gets curious.”

“Plus I could always shake it up slightly,” I pointed out.

Nearby, Odd lowered his own phone to chest level, having finished the call to his parents and sisters that he had started not long after Aelita had made the suggestion. “Mom and Dad were glad that both of us were doing okay, Cat Girl. My sisters wanted to give the both of us a big hug!”

“That would be nice,” I smiled, happy to hear it.

Ulrich smiled as he pulled his own cell phone out of his pants pocket. “Now I’m gonna call my mom and dad.”

“I hope he doesn’t act as angry as a wet cat on washing day,” I fretted slightly.

Ulrich started dialing, as he looked at me. “You saw how he was, back in the hospital, and how he sounded in that news report. He’ll probably be really happy when he hears I’m safe.”

His face then fell, a bit. “At least, I hope he will…”

That’s what I hoped, too, but hearing Ulrich doubt himself didn’t help my worries.

Aelita looked over in my direction, giving me one of her calming, disarming smiles. “I’m sure it’s no big deal, Cassidy.”

I took a deep breath. “You’re right. I worry too much.”

Jeremie grinned at me, once he realized the conversation I just had with Aelita sounded quite similar to one he had with her, several months back. “Don’t worry. I do the same.”

And Aelita couldn’t help but giggle behind her hand, once she realized the reference, as well.

“Yeah. At least we don’t have a contest to go to, this time,” I chuckled, my nerves melting.

Shortly after, Yumi pulled Sister’s cell phone away from her ear, before ending the call. “Jim was glad that we’re all doing well, and he hopes we have a great trip back to France.”

“FANTASTIC!” Odd and Kiwi chorused, giggling in glee.

And then William finished his phone call. He looked somewhat happy, as he hung up his cell phone. “My mom and dad are glad that we’re all doing great, too. They’re hoping they can see all of us, if not me when we get back to Kadic.”

“That’s awesome, William,” I smiled. “I would love to meet your parents properly. I didn’t get a good chance to when we got you home, and in the assembly, they only talked to you, not even including a desire to see me.”

“They’re really cool.” William nodded. “I bet they’ll really like you, Cass. They’ll probably get along with all of us.”

“I’d love that so much,” I agreed.

Hunter was next, hanging up his cell phone a few seconds after I answered William’s question. He looked quite relieved.

“Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Marcel were overjoyed to know I was safe, glad to know everyone’s alright but surprised when I told them I had been taken back to the States. And just as I thought, they told my parents I was missing, and soon they’ll call them and give them the good news, too. I didn’t tell them about the wings, though; I didn’t think about it. I got caught up in all the excitement after I told them we were all safe and sound.”

“It’s okay, Hunter. Meanwhile, I don’t know if _I’m_ ready to reveal my wings yet,” I reassured, my nerves flaring.

Hunter’s mouth curved up into a grin. “Well, you could always tell Aunt Jeanette and Uncle Marcel, first, if you want to. They’re pretty relaxed, slightly laid-back, more so than my parents, but very caring people, too. I figure if I tell them, they’ll be curious about how I got mine, but they wouldn’t kick me to the curb, or send me back to Maryland. So they’d probably be okay with you showing off yours, as well.”

“Yeah, that’s good, but I’m talking about _my_ parents,” I whimpered nervously. “My mother was scared in that news report. I don’t know what will happen when I reveal that I’ve become a mutant against my will and that my strand of hair is natural rather than dyed.”

“Maybe they won’t take it as badly as you might think?” Aelita tried to reassure me. “I’m a bit afraid to tell my mother and father about my wings and your DNA, too, but given that Daddy has dealt with these sorts of things before, I don’t think it’ll be that bad. Mommy might be more concerned that we’re all okay, and not worry about our wings so much, but I’m not sure how she’ll take them giving you a sample of my DNA, and the strand of pink hair it gave you.”

“But either way,” Yumi jumped in, “those wings, and your hair, they’re both a part of you, now. They know we were abducted, but really all they can get angry at are the whitecoats. They won’t get mad at us for something we didn’t have any control over.”

I rubbed my neck, on the side of being stung three times. “I guess you’re right.”

“Your mom probably won’t kick you out of your house for that,” Yumi gave me a calm, reassuring smile. “I’ve met your mother. She seems like a wonderful person, who cares deeply about you, and I can guess your sister, as well. I don’t think she’s going to shun you for something you couldn’t stop from happening.”

“I don’t think she would either, but I guess I’m a bit paranoid.” I didn’t smile, but I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

“What if we show them our wings, all at once?” Odd suggested. “That way, we’ll reveal that they did it to all of us at the same time.”

“No, Odd. I’ll reveal my wings solo, and then we can each unveil our own, carefully. My house is a bit smaller than Yumi’s in scale. One bathroom, three bedrooms, one basement, and a bar table separating the living room and kitchen. We don’t have much, but to us, it’s home,” I said.

“And that’s exactly what matters,” Jeremie grinned.

“I do warn you, Odd, that my dog is a bit dog unfriendly. One time my grandparents took my other dog to Illinois for my birthday, and we ended up putting BJ in the basement because Braxton barked at her. So maybe keeping Kiwi outside somewhere might be the best idea?” I squeaked, bracing for impact.

“What if I keep him with me, at all times?” Odd inquired, seeming a bit surprised. “I could just carry him around the whole time!”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “I just don’t want Kiwi to be hurt. Braxton is a bigger dog compared to him.”

Odd’s face fell a bit, but he soon picked it back up, making me think he understood where I was coming from. “Yeah… maybe you’re right. I’ll just let someone else keep my diggity-dog company, while we’re visiting your parents.”

“If my grandpa still owns the farm, he could romp around with the stray kitties all day there until it’s time to leave Illinois,” I suggested. “My aunt would bring her dog over all the time.”

“Cool!” Odd’s face rose a bit more, at that thought. He soon looked down at the dog in question, who was perched on his lap, getting a gentle petting. “Wouldn’t you like that, Kiwi?”

“Yeah, plus I haven’t seen any other animals in a while. But I hope that’s the last trip to California for a long time. That earthquake almost made me want to throw up,” Kiwi nodded gratefully.

“Oh, you won’t have to worry about that, Kiwi,” Jeremie tried to reassure him. “Once we’re all safely back in France, I don’t think we’ll ever come back out to the western United States again for a _long_ time.”

“Yeah, I don’t wanna go back to the School at all.” I shook my head.

“I think it’s safe to say we _all_ agree on that one,” Patrick nodded.

“Yeah,” Kaitlyn agreed.

“But then again,” Hunter added, “if we hadn’t—and I’m not saying the entire experience was good, because, heck no, it wasn’t—we probably wouldn’t have met people like Jeb, or Georgina… or Max, Fang, Gasman, and the others.”

Dr. Martinez smiled. “We’re all glad we could help. After what they did to my daughter and her flock, she sure wasn’t going to let you all go through that, too.”

“And we thank you for that,” I smiled at her.

“You’re welcome.” She giggled. “Now how about we see if the whitecoats put anything else into you, besides DNA?”

Hunter raised an eyebrow, as he looked up at Dr. Martinez. “But how would we find out if they did inject us with anything else?”

“Not all of us have superhuman powers,” Max’s mom teased. “But some of us have access to X-ray machines.”

Jeremie glanced in my direction and cocked a brow, to which I sighed. “She’s a veterinarian, and she found a chip in Max’s arm. A couple books later, she removed it, temporarily making her hand numb. Soon, she got the use of her arm back.”

“Then we’d better let her examine all of us, too,” Jeremie’s features sported slight determination. “There’s no telling what else they could have done to us, before we all became spiritual entities, during our sedation.”

“That’s true,” Yumi agreed. “They could have done that to one or all of us.”

I glanced over at Sister, who seemed to be scratching herself, as though she had recently encountered poison ivy. “If they put anything more into us, wouldn’t we feel it somewhere on our bodies?”

“It could feel like a grain of rice under the skin,” Dr. Martinez nodded. “But we could have you all X-rayed to be sure.”

“That’s probably our best option,” Jeremie suggested. “Better to be on the safe side. Who knows how they could use whatever they might have put into us.”

“Yeah. I don’t want this place attacked by Erasers,” I groaned, the idea giving me the willies.

So, once Ulrich finished his phone call, and everyone finished the remains of their breakfast, we all compiled into the van we had ridden over in, and Dr. Martinez drove us over to her veterinary practice, Max taking the passenger seat. It was about what you’d expect, with a relatively big-sized building, and plenty of adorable animals waiting in the waiting room with their owners. Once we got there, Dr. Martinez took us straight behind the reception desk, into the back.

 _This place still gives me the creeps,_ Max thought, making me glance sympathetically in her general direction.

We walked into an exam room. A typical setup, it sported a few different machines for checking the health of dogs, cats, and other animals, along with a metal table on one side of the room, near a series of cabinets, with a sink, and various different chemicals. Once we were all inside, Dr. Martinez closed the door behind us, and walked over to a machine in another corner of the room, by some empty countertops and cabinets.

“Who would like to go first?” Jeremie asked.

Kaitlyn raised her hand. “I’ll go first.”

Dr. Martinez nodded. “Sure. We can go in no particular order, just as long as everyone gets examined.”

Kaitlyn nodded, as Max’s mom wheeled the X-ray machine away from the corner it was sitting in, and over toward the metal table.

“Get up onto the metal table,” she directed Jeremie’s female cousin. “I’ll just run this over you a few times, and we’ll see what else the whitecoats might have done to you.”

She did as she was told, taking off her shoes, before lying on her back. The X-ray machine, which had a metal arm that hovered over the examination table, was turned on, Dr. Martinez slowly moving the arm back and forth, carefully watching what appeared on its monitor.

“Hm… it doesn’t say anything here,” Max’s mom noted.

“That’s good,” she smiled.

A few more passes showed that Kaitlyn thankfully didn’t have any microchips injected into her body. Dr. Martinez then swung the X-ray machine’s arm out of the way, allowing Jeremie’s female cousin to hop off the table, and put her shoes back on.

Yumi decided to go next. Her combat boots were off in a few seconds, and she climbed onto the metal table, laying on her back as well. Dr. Martinez then swung the X-ray machine’s arm over Yumi’s body, starting with a few slow back-and-forth motions, checking her for any strange things.

After a few more passes, it turned out that Yumi wasn’t chipped, either, which surprised me. Her and I both knew the book series, so I thought that the whitecoats would single both her and I out, because of this.

Once Yumi had climbed off the table and put her combat boots back on, Odd gently placed Kiwi upon the metal table. Dr. Martinez scanned him and found nothing, so Ulrich went next. He was also clean, as was Jeremie, who volunteered after Samurai.

Hunter took off his shoes and was scanned next, a bit more comfortable with the whole thing after seeing the others before him, and he was chip free, as well.

His shoes replaced, Patrick was next on the table. Dr. Martinez found nothing in him either. Jeremie was relieved to find his darling pink-haired girlfriend chip free, and both Sam and Odd were grateful the other had nothing of the sort, as well. Then William went, followed by Sister, and they, too, were chip-less. It seemed as though we were going to come up completely chip free.

Then it was my turn. Taking a deep breath, I removed my shoes and laid myself on the metal table, trying to settle my nerves.

Dr. Martinez must have noticed this, as she smiled calmly at me while swinging the X-ray machine’s metal arm over my body. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. Your friends all came back clean, so there’s no reason to believe you’ll have any chips inside you, either.”

“R-right,” I smiled. “Maybe I will come up free, too.”

She nodded with a similar smile, as she began slowly sliding the metal bar back and forth, getting a good look at the monitor’s readout. As it passed over my head, shoulders, and chest, everything seemed fine.

Of course, we all know how _that_ sort of thing ends, don’t we…

While Dr. Martinez was passing the scanner bar over my arms, I saw her eyes widen slightly, sending my nerves into overdrive. Stopping momentarily, she began slowly moving the X-ray machine’s metal arm back and forth over each of my arms, as if she didn’t believe what the device’s monitor was showing her.

“I think I figured out the cause of that neck pain in the van that Jeb reported to me,” she blinked.

My butterflies immediately called for backup. “Oh, God.”

Yumi quickly adopted a look of concern, as she glanced back and forth between me, and the X-ray machine’s readout. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. Now that we know it’s there, we’re gonna get it out of you.”

“Okay…” I whispered, my heart revving to a hundred miles per hour.

“She’s right,” Dr. Martinez agreed, trying to speak in a calm, soothing voice to help me relax. “And it won’t be any trouble, either. Max’s removal proved difficult because the chip had been in her arm for years. But yours never had the chance for your nerves and muscles to grow around it, so it should be easy to remove.”

I nodded, slightly reassured. She was right. Max’s had grown with her. Mine was at least a day old.

Sister walked to the side of the table, looking more worried than Yumi was. “Ooh, I was afraid of this! But I’m sure Dr. Martinez is a very skilled surgeon and can get that nasty chip out of you quickly and easily, sister dear.”

“Thanks, Sister,” I blinked.

“That’s exactly right, Sissi,” Dr. Martinez confirmed, as she turned off the X-ray machine, and swung its arm away from my body. “And we should get it removed as soon as possible, that way it doesn’t have any chance to form any nerve connections.”

“Or cause any trouble with Erasers,” I heard Jeremie agree.

Odd walked over to the table, as well. “You’re gonna be okay, Cat Girl. Don’t worry! The sooner we get it out of you, the better!”

A smile found its way to my face. “That’s true, Odd. Thanks, Ninja-Cat-Winged Boy.”

He laughed at that. “You said it, Winged Cat Girl!”

“I’ll have to move us into an operating room,” Dr. Martinez added, moving the X-ray machine back into the corner we had found it in. “It’ll be set up for pets, but since we’re doing a simple neck operation, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

She then looked at me, after she had taken care of the machine. “Is there anything we can do to make you comfortable beforehand, Cassidy?”

“Maybe have Aelita, Yumi, Sister, and Odd with me? That way, I’ll have them for moral support,” I nodded.

She nodded with a smile. “Of course. Why don’t the five of you follow me? I’ll lead you into the operating room. Max, could you show the others to my office? I don’t want the customers wondering what’s going on.”

Max nodded. “Yes, Mom.”

The others quickly offered well-wishes of good luck, and reassurances that I would easily pull through, before following Max out the door, William turned to me, before leaving.

“Cass? Don’t be worried, okay?” he spoke with a grin. “Just because something looks terrible, doesn’t mean it can’t be taken care of if you give it time. Dr. Martinez has got plenty of firepower, so she’s gonna blast that chip right out of your neck, and you won’t even feel it.”

Hunter stopped momentarily, turning to me as well. “You’re gonna be okay, Cassidy. It’s just a little tiny chip. It probably hasn’t even had time to activate, or do anything, yet. We’re all with you, anyway.”

Soon, it was just Aelita, Yumi, Sister, Odd, Dr. Martinez, and me. I got off the table, putting on my shoes, and looked at Max’s mother. “I’m ready.”

Dr. Martinez smiled reassuringly, as she looked at me, before gesturing toward the door. “Great. Let’s take you to the operating room.”

Opening the door once more, Dr. Martinez led Aelita, Yumi, Odd, Sister, and I down to the other end of the hallway, and into another room. Inside, there were different machines, each placed near another metal table; however, Max’s mom walked over to a cabinet, after closing the door behind us, and pulled out a blanket, which she draped over the metal table.

“We’ll take the chip out of your neck in here,” she explained. “Now, how would you like me to do it? Would you like to lay down, or would you be okay sitting up?”

“Maybe laying down would be best,” I suggested, hopping up onto the table.

“Good idea.” The doctor walked over to another cabinet, from which she pulled a folded-up towel. “You can lay your head against this. It’s probably not the softest thing, but this is a veterinary practice, after all.”

I put it near the spot where I planned to lay my head, then placed it atop the towel, finding a comfortable laying position.

Once the towel was in a comfortable place, Dr. Martinez pulled a few utensils, along with a syringe, out of a drawer. “Are you comfortable, Cassidy?”

“Yes, Dr. Martinez,” I told her, my eyes having a nice view of where my friends were.

“Great!” she smiled, reassuringly, as she moved the utensils, and the syringe, along with a small glass jar, over onto a rolling cart, which she rolled over by me. “Now, I know you’re probably sick to death of syringes, but I’m going to numb your neck a bit, okay? I’m gonna numb the spot before I insert the syringe, so all you’ll feel is just a little bit of pressure, all right?”

“I think most of us are, but you do what you need to, okay?” I blinked, taking a deep breath.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” Dr. Martinez soothed, as I watched Aelita, Yumi, Sister, and Odd approach the table. My former first roommate and my geisha friend soon began softly rubbing each of my arms, while the nice principal’s daughter and _mi novio_ each held one of my hands.

“I trust you, Dr. Martinez.”

She nodded, as she began to dip a cotton ball into a sort of alcohol-based substance, which I could see out of the corner of my eye, between her and Aelita. A few seconds later, she slowly brought it over to the side of my neck where the chip was located and began to softly swab it all around one spot in particular, below the sore spot where that whitecoat had injected me with the microchip in the first place before I blacked out.

“You’re doing great so far, Cassidy,” Yumi smiled encouragingly.

In reply, the corners of my mouth curved upward, feeling pins and needles where Dr. Martinez was rubbing. “Thank you, Yumi.”

After Max’s mom had rubbed a decent amount of the substance onto the side of my neck, she gently placed the cotton ball onto the tray, next to the bowl that held the liquid, before reaching for the syringe, next.

“You’ve got it, dear sister!” Sister was next, looking excited as she encouraged me. “You’re doing just fine!”

I forced myself to be calm, reminding myself that she didn’t know how much of a trigger those four words turned out to be, in my case. “Thanks, Sister… Even though I found you turning over a new leaf to be a shock at first, I grew to love it.”

She nodded, the excited look not moving from her face. “I’m glad! Sorry I scared you at first. But this is the new me, and it’s not going anywhere!”

“All water under the bridge, now,” I grinned. “I am a bit curious about where it came from. I understand the monster had something to do with it, but I don’t know…”

“It _was_ the monster,” she confirmed. “It showed me everything you and your friends had done that saved the world, but it also showed me every nice thing I had done for you, how grateful it made everyone, and how many stupid things I did, as well. The whole thing just really freaked me out, and I didn’t know what to do, at first. But when I went to the hospital with you and the others, I started to see how wonderful you all really were, just like the monster had shown me, and I felt terrible for all the things I had done to all of you in the past. That’s what made me change.”

“I still remember how you called me Psychic Wonder. That was new for you to use on me,” I noted.

“Mm-hmm!” She nodded. “I thought it was better than ‘Danger Psychic.’”

“Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi came up with it,” I breathed, keeping myself from scoffing.

Before Sister could reply, Dr. Martinez brought a syringe over by my neck. “Okay, Cassidy, time to numb your neck a bit. Just hold still; you’re doing wonderfully.”

I stiffened my neck, moments before I felt the gentle push of the syringe going into my neck, without any pain whatsoever. In a few seconds, Dr. Martinez pulled it back out again, as I felt the feeling in my neck slowly slip away.

“You’re doing great, Cassidy,” Aelita smiled brightly at me.

“Thanks, Aelita,” I blinked.

“My pleasure,” she replied. “She’ll have the chip out of your neck in no time.”

“At least it’s there and not somewhere in my teeth. Now that would be disturbing.”

“But then we’d need a dentist!” Odd quipped, trying to keep me in good spirits. “And animal teeth aren’t the same as human teeth!”

“I would rather not undergo laughing gas, Odd.” I tried not to get angry, but if I wanted to get the chip out of my neck, I had to stay still. _Where have all his good jokes gone?_

“We’ll all need laughing gas,” Yumi jumped in, a grin on her face, “if his jokes continue to be _this_ bad.”

“Don’t you remember what I told you on the limo ride to the spa?” I gritted my teeth, worried that my friends had forgotten.

Concern washed over my geisha friend, as she looked down at me. “We didn’t forget. We were just trying to cheer you up. Don’t worry, Cassidy. Nobody’s giving anyone laughing gas.”

“Yeah, because I don’t want anything to do with that, right now,” I blinked, taking a relaxing breath.

“Let’s think about something else,” Sister tried to change the subject, as she knew how much I hated that thought. “What about… what’ll we do, after Dr. Martinez takes that chip out of your neck?”

“Maybe we could go to Starbucks or something, I guess.” I would have shrugged, but Max’s mom needed me to hold still. That device could be stuck forever if I jolted suddenly.

“Yeah, Odd on a cup of coffee. That’ll be the day,” Yumi scoffed, a chuckle rising within her.

“Caffeine wouldn’t do that to me,” Odd replied. “My metabolism’s too high for that!”

“Plus, they do sell hot chocolate. I just love their Frappuccinos,” I smiled. “Especially the double chocolaty chip ones. It’s thanks to my mom. Once, we took a trip to Kentucky, best trip of my life, and we saw the horses. So to not bore me in a different time zone, Mom took a walk with me across the parking lot to a Starbucks and introduced me. I got so caffeinated from a frappuccino, I chattered her ears off.”

Aelita grinned, nearly giggling. “After this is all over, maybe we should all have one.”

“They have different flavors, so everyone can have their own. They even sign the cups with the owner’s name,” I beamed.

“Great!” Aelita chuckled. “I can’t wait to see what other flavors they have, too.”

“Maybe Jeremie would like something, too.”

“How about this,” Dr. Martinez jumped in, having just taken a scalpel to my neck, and was now bringing a pair of tweezers over, “after we get the chip out of you, I’ll treat everyone to Starbucks. Sound good?”

“That sounds good,” I smiled.

“Wonderful!” She was now trying to keep her hands as steady as she could, slowly inserting the tweezers into the incision she had created, aiming for the chip. “I’ll let the others know, once we’re finished here.”

“How am I doing?”

“Wonderfully,” Max’s mom was filled with praise, as the tweezers slowly neared the offender. “I’ve almost got the microchip.”

“That’s good,” Yumi smiled. “I would hate for Erasers to attack us because of it.”

She nodded. “That’s why I’m thrilled that we were able to detect it when we did. Any longer, and it might have started to make connections with Cassidy’s nerves.”

“And I would hate for difficulties to arise. Good thing it’s a day old,” I blinked. _Here we go again with the “Ignore Cassidy even if she’s present” game._

“Exactly. And it’s also a good thing Max suggested this. Otherwise, we might not have even found it at all.”

“Yeah. I’m glad that she did,” I smiled.

“So am I,” she added, before stopping, in order to concentrate better, as the tweezers came within inches of the chip. “Almost got it…”

I held as still as possible, keeping quiet, not wanting to risk shoving the thing in further.

Slowly but surely, Dr. Martinez inched the tweezers closer, and closer, and closer… until she slowly pinched them, catching the microchip between each metal arm. An excited grin overtook her face, as she slowly slid the tweezers back out of my neck, with the microchip between them.

“Got it!”

“Oh, thank God…” I sighed in relief.

Yumi and Sister cheered, while Odd thrust his fist up into the air in excitement, and Aelita gave my arm a reassuring, soft and gentle rub, beaming at me.

“That’s great news…” I smiled.

Max’s mom then tossed the chip, and the tweezers, into a biohazard container, before going to another cabinet to retrieve some gauze and medical tape. “Now I’ll just bandage up that hole, and you’ll be all set. The anesthetic I used on your neck will wear off in a couple of hours, so you’ll be fine.”

I blinked. “That sounds good.”

While Dr. Martinez grabbed the required supplies, Aelita happened to cast her gaze toward the closed door. “I wonder how the others are doing? I hope they haven’t been bored, this whole time.”

“Knowing them, I’m sure they found something to do,” I giggled slightly.

“You’re probably right,” Aelita added her own laugh, closing her eyes as she did.

“Besides, what would a couple of computer geniuses, a samurai, a dog, a leader of a flock, two cousins to one of the said computer geniuses, and an ex-boyfriend of mine do in one room?” I asked. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Maybe they’d try to change the lightbulbs?” Odd suggested.

Yumi got a good laugh out of that one. “I could see that. Jeremie telling the others what’s in the lightbulb, while my _anata_ tries to destroy the one that’s already in the socket, and William and Patrick try to hold him back!”

“What about Hunter, Max, Kaitlyn, and Kiwi,” I threatened to burst out laughing.

“Hunter would try to reason with Ulrich,” Yumi started guessing, “but he’d probably back off pretty quickly. Max would probably try to keep the whole situation under control, with Kaitlyn getting into an argument with my _anata._ Kiwi would probably ask one of them to hold him up to the light so he can unscrew it with his teeth.”

I gritted my teeth, my laughter filtering through them. “That would be so funny.”

“My daughter would probably be as much of a hothead as your boyfriend, Yumi,” Dr. Martinez admitted, as she gently pressed a wad of gauze against the incision she had made, before softly placing a slight bit of medical tape around it, to hold it in place. “Hunter might end up ducking into a corner, I fear.”

“Yeah, almost about to go into a meltdown,” I realized. “Ugh… I still feel sorry for him.”

Yumi’s face fell, slightly, when I mentioned this. “Yeah… poor guy. All they told me was that there were a lot of random, loud noises in the test that overloaded him. I didn’t get the rest.”

“I am glad Jeb helped me. I felt like my body was going to kill me.”

“Probably the only time that shunt actually came in handy,” Odd admitted.

“Yeah, and they did a glucose assay on me while I was fading out. I caught their thoughts,” I blinked. “No wonder William handed me a Dr. Pepper.”

Dr. Martinez had firmly patched up the incision, moments after I finished my sentence. “And you’re all set, Cassidy. Just be careful for a little while, okay? Just in case.”

“Okay, Dr. Martinez, and thank you.” I lifted my head from the towel I had been laying on.

“It’s no problem at all,” she replied with a smile. “I’ll just place these towels in the laundry, and I’ll lead you into my office, where the others should still be waiting for us.”

“That sounds good,” Yumi smiled, wrapping her arms around me carefully.

Sister then started to look me over, with a look of concern on her face. “How do you feel, dear sister?”

“Doing good,” I grinned, “now that I won’t have to worry about the Erasers tracking us down because one of us has a chip.”

“That’s fantastic!” _mi novio_ exclaimed, also glad to see that I was doing well. “I wonder if those whitecoats had anything else up their sleeves.”

“I don’t know, Odd, but I’m glad that we can figure things out,” I giggled.

“So am I,” Dr. Martinez agreed, as she placed the towels I had rested my head upon into a laundry hamper. “Let’s go check on the others. Hopefully, they haven’t made a mess of my office.”

“I’m sure they haven’t. It’s not like Ulrich and Jeremie would butt heads over how long I’d be in here,” I giggled.

Max’s mom led us back out of the operating room, and down the hallway once more. Once she reached her office and opened the door, we happened to catch Ulrich right in the middle of a joke. Needless to say, he was still slightly off when it came to humor.

“...and then I see this Blok come trotting over on the ice. So I bring up my katana, look it in the eye, and yell, ‘I’m gonna knock your block off, you dumb blockhead!’ Then Yumi backflips over by me, hand between her obi and back, and says—”

“‘Sounds like you miss Odd! Your jokes are worse than his,’” Yumi chuckled.

As she began her sentence, Ulrich came to a screeching halt, his eyes widening as he whirled around to face his girlfriend. “Yumi! Dah—uh… ah… uh—duh… you’re… dah—uh… back?”

William, Patrick, Kaitlyn, Jeremie, Sam, and Hunter immediately burst out laughing at Samurai’s expense, while he fought to form some kind of coherent sentence.

“Yes, we are, Ulrich,” she smiled.

I could tell Ulrich was fighting to regain his ability to talk coherently, as he looked at me, trying to figure out what to say, next. “Duh—uh… Cassidy… uh… you, uh… feeling better now?”

“Yeah. No more chip means no worries about an Eraser ambush,” I smiled.

Jeremie grinned at me. “That’s fantastic! It sounds like the entire procedure was quick and easy.”

“It was, Jeremie, sweetheart!” Sister happily confirmed. “We kept my dear sister entertained, and she didn’t feel a thing! Next thing she knew, Dr. Martinez had pulled the nasty chip out of her neck, and bandaged her up!”

“And if you all feel up to it, Dr. Martinez is treating us to Starbucks,” I smiled.

The general consensus was that this was a magnificent idea.

“That would be great!” Patrick replied with a grin.

“That’s a fantastic idea!” Jeremie cheered.

“Just make sure Odd doesn’t get any caffeine,” Ulrich quipped, folding his arms, “if the rest of us wanna sleep tonight, that is.”

“Hey, they have hot chocolate.” I looked him in his brown eyes, a smirk on my lips.

The mischievous grin on Samurai’s face slowly faded. “And how do you know that?”

“Been to one before.” I kept my gaze locked on his, my own devious smile not disappearing from my features.

“Oh, you _have_ , have you?” Of course, he wasn’t backing down, either. “And how do you know Odd’s not just gonna go for an iced coffee?”

“Because Dr. Martinez’ll order the beverage for him.” My game did not falter.

He slowly regained his own mischievous grin, as he knew where things were headed. “What if he finds a few sugar packets, huh?”

“We’ll go through the drive-thru. Zip the chances just like that.” Sister did teach me a few things, after all.

That got Ulrich on his toes. He started to grit his teeth, as if he was running out of options, but afraid of “losing the game,” as it were. “Well, uh…”

An idea struck him, as his right index finger shot out, coming within a foot of my body. “How do we know he’s not gonna try and take a sip of someone else’s?!”

“Hm?” I smiled. “You’re not afraid of losing, are you, Ulrich, dear?”

Sister and Yumi burst out laughing.

His eyebrows lowering, he folded his arms, looking down at Dr. Martinez’s office blue carpet, as he began to get quite flustered. “Uh… um—duh… uh… _no_! Uh—who said anything about me, uh… losing?!”

Jeremie then threw his hat into the proverbial ring, folding his own arms, and adopting a mischievous smile of his own, as he turned to look at Samurai. “Why are you getting all hot under the collar, then, huh, Ulrich? I’m sure anyone who isn’t afraid of losing wouldn’t adopt that expression.”

That made him blush, as he glared at Jeremie. “Stay out of this Einstein, huh! This is between me and Cassidy!”

And then Dr. Martinez started clicking her tongue, shaking her head disapprovingly. “No, this is not good at all. C’mon, everyone. We’d better get Ulrich to Starbucks before he gets too hot.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea,” I nodded, turning to follow her.

“I agree,” Max added, stopping by Ulrich as the others started filing out of her mother’s office. “C’mon, Ulrich. A double chocolaty chip frappuccino will cool you right down.”

“Yeah,” Sister smiled. “I could go for a vanilla bean one myself.”

“I’m debating on either a double chocolaty chip,” Hunter mused, as he followed Sister out the door, “or a java chip. Guess it depends on how awake I am, right now.”

“You can make the decision in the van,” I smiled, feeling my wings want to flicker.

After everyone else had left except Yumi and Ulrich, my geisha friend walked over to her boyfriend, and wrapped her arms around him, before resting her chin on his right shoulder.

“C’mon,” she soothed, trying to help him relax. “Everyone else is waiting for us. Let’s go get something good, huh?”

He nodded, wordlessly, following her. In no time at all, they had caught up with the rest of us, and we all piled back into Dr. Martinez’s van, bound for Starbucks.

Needless to say, once we got there, and each of us ordered our drinks, Odd got his hot chocolate and didn’t sample anything from anyone else, shooting Ulrich’s questions away. I couldn’t help but giggle at his expense. Each of us enjoyed the drinks we did get, as we headed back to Dr. Martinez’s house, once more.

Hunter held a double chocolaty chip frappuccino in his hands, having made up his mind as Dr. Martinez pulled into Starbucks’ drive-thru, sipping away happily every so often. “Oh, man… I forgot how good this was…”

“Me, too…” I said, coming up for air after ordering my own.

“Me, three…” Yumi agreed, having made a similar choice as Hunter and me.

Sister took a sip of her own, a different flavor than what Yumi, Hunter, and I had chosen. “Mmmmm! And the vanilla tastes fantastic! I wish the closest Starbucks to Kadic Academy wasn’t in downtown Paris!”

“Sister, this is one of the things I missed most about being here,” I giggled.

“And this hot chocolate is fantastic! I didn’t know they gave whipped cream to dogs,” Odd smiled, still holding two cups.

“Puppuccino,” Kiwi sang, chuckling.

That one made everyone giggle.

In what seemed like twenty minutes, we were soon back at Dr. Martinez’s house. As we got out of the van and headed for the front door, Jeb opened the door as we reached the front walk.

“Welcome back, my friends!” he greeted us. “How did it go?”

“Wonderfully, Jeb,” Jeremie explained. “Dr. Martinez was able to extract a microchip from Cassidy’s neck, and from what I heard, it was quick, easy, and painless. To celebrate, she then drove us all over to Starbucks. Now, we can be absolutely sure we’ll be Eraser free.”

“Excellent,” Jeb smiled. “I’m glad you’re doing well, Cassidy.”

I smiled. “Most definitely. We should be smooth sailing from here on in, thanks to Max.”

“I’m glad I could help!” she beamed, turning to me.

“I can’t wait to hear what we will do for traveling,” Kaitlyn said.

“Don’t worry,” Dr. Martinez smiled. “Right now, we’re doing some regrouping. So you can rest up and then get back on the road in a couple days.”

“That sounds great,” Aelita commented with a smile, before glancing over at Sister. “I wonder how your father plans to get us back to France?”

“He’s going to get us tickets for a luxury cruise liner!” Sister beamed. “And if we’re lucky, we might even be the only ones on it!”

“R-really?” I asked, my eyes widening in surprise. “You asked your father to do that?!”

She nodded, the picture of pride. “Mm-hmm! After our awesome adventures here, I thought we could all use a bit of relaxation, as we head back to Kadic! Besides, the ten of us loved the spa I took us to, so why not have an extra long spa day, for all of us!”

“Sissi, you think of everything,” Jeremie grinned.

“We just have to be at the East Coast in a month. That way, we have plenty of time, and less met lag,” Sister beamed.

“Jet lag,” I giggled, gently correcting her.

“That’s great!” Ulrich grinned, as well. “I could really go for another massage.”

“Why not with Georgina for now, Ulrich?” My game still dealt the cards.

His eyes widened, almost as if he hadn’t thought of that. “Well, uh… sure, why not? If she keeps you and Hunter nice and relaxed, then I bet she’ll do the same to me.”

“Exactly! Now let’s just sit down and relax. It’s been a long, long morning,” I yawned slightly, sitting on the couch.

Ulrich found my yawning contagious. “You’re totally right. I thought I got enough sleep last night, but with Odd’s snoring, I’m surprised _anyone_ got some shut-eye.”

“Oh, c’mon, Ulrich,” Yumi gently chided him. “He wasn’t that loud.”

Then she turned to look at me. “What song did that come from?”

“‘School is Out’ by The Subdigitals,” I blinked, confused. “I thought you had a copy of their CD.”

She grinned with closed eyes, almost as if it were at her own expense. “You’re right. I guess I’m more tired than I thought I was, too.”

“Well, you had to stand through a chip removal,” I noted. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

She nodded. “I’m guessing you’re pretty tired out, too, huh?”

“You guessed it, Yumi. It was good to have you, Aelita, Odd, and Sister around to keep me calm,” I smiled, trying to stifle a yawn.

“But at least you feel better, now,” Jeremie reminded me, “and that’s the most important part of all.”

“Yeah, no chip. We’re away from the School. Things are looking up at least. Even though I am exhausted, I still feel a bit excited that Jeb, Georgina, Max, and her flock saved us.” I felt my cheeks heat up.

A smile slowly curved Jeb’s lips upward. “Well, we certainly couldn’t bear to let you go through all that alone. We were just in the right place, at the right time.”

“And that helps a lot. I just hope that you don’t find some of my fangirling annoying if it explodes out of me,” I curled up on the cushion.

Jeb raised a hand up to chest level, reassuringly. “Oh, no, don’t worry about that. I’m sure it won’t be nearly as crazy as all that.”

“Did you say that we exist as storybook characters in your world, Cassidy?” Dr. Martinez jumped in.

“I think worlds had collided when Cassidy unleashed the monster, woke up from her coma, then a lot of crazy stuff happened—both good and bad—, and the Erasers came to Kadic. She and I read the books as far as the one named after Max herself. How would we know about the CSM mission to Africa all of a sudden, or Total talking?” Yumi asked.

Jeb and Dr. Martinez, along with Max and her flock, all suddenly adopted looks of surprise, some even emitting gasps, when Yumi admitted this. To say they were shocked would be the understatement of the beginning of the century.

But it didn’t take long for them to calm down again, with Jeb being the first to break the stunned silence.

“That explains why you freaked out when I first introduced you to Ari, Cassidy,” he noted, surprise still slightly noticeable in his voice.

“In the third book, Ari died, Max found about his mom and hers, then as soon as she and the rest of the flock reunited, some meeting Dr. Martinez for the first time, flew back to give him a proper burial, and Max cried at his funeral,” I explained. “To see him alive left me in knots.”

“I see,” Jeb brought his hand up to his chin. “He did indeed intend to make it look like he had died, with the others putting on a very convincing show, but in the end, it all worked out to our benefit.”

“None of them ever saw it coming,” Ari admitted, slowly gaining his own grin. “They thought they killed me, but I came back, and killed _them!_ ”

“Yumi, I think I owe you some euros,” I said sheepishly.

She shook her head. “Absolutely none of that. It was one of my theories, and I didn’t know if that would be right.”

“Ahh…” Odd jumped in, “isn’t it great when the movie doesn’t follow the book the whole way?”

“That’s true, Odd. _Harry Potter_ doesn’t have all the points from the novels to the movies, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. I liked how they changed the Witch Burning essay scene to a practicing magic at night one in _Prisoner of Azkaban_ ,” I smiled, still drained. “I especially like how, in the theaters, you could see Hedwig looking smug.”

“I never noticed that,” Dr. Martinez admitted, before abruptly changing topics. “But it sounds to me like you could use a nap, Cassidy.”

“Yeah. It sounds like a good time for one,” I agreed, yawning.

That was when Georgina walked up to Ulrich and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Then let’s go into the bathroom, Ulrich. I’ll give you your massage in there.”

“Okay,” Ulrich replied, with a nod.

“That sounds great!” Odd chimed in. “I think I’ll go for one, too. Maybe even a full-body rub, too!”

Georgina smiled at Odd. “Why don’t you come with us? I’ll rub and massage you after I take care of Ulrich.”

“Fantastic!” Odd replied as he followed Ulrich and Georgina toward the bathroom.

Hunter smiled as he watched the three walk down the hallway, and I could hear him thinking something similar. _I wonder what it would feel like to be body-rubbed, or massaged, to sleep? As long as Georgina doesn’t try to bathe me, too..._

It was a wonderful thought, but before I could stop Georgina, even if it were just to see how Hunter would react, I felt my consciousness slowly slip away, as I fell into a deep, restful nap.

What a pleasant pause to a fascinating day. But it didn’t stop there; the rest of the day was going to get even more engaging.


	13. Travel Plans

**Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OCs and the plot.**

I was out for a good four hours, long enough for both Ulrich and Odd to get extra-long full-body rubs and massages; Georgina was even able to give them both nice, slow full-body wipes, as well. The two boys came out of the bathroom feeling quite relaxed and refreshed, so when I finally awoke from my nap shortly after, everyone decided it was time to figure out what we would do next. Sister had told us that her father planned to send us tickets for a luxury cruise liner, but that the boat would moor in Maryland, so we’d need to head across the country to reach it. He gave us a month, which would be plenty of time for all of us to make whatever stops were needed, before ultimately ending up in Baltimore, to board the ship, and enjoy a nice, relaxing cruise back to Sceaux. The next phase was figuring out what exactly we’d do with all that extra time. To that end, we had unfolded a map across Dr. Martinez’s coffee table, and began to plot our next course of action.

“So here’s the plan,” Max said, pointing on the map of the United States, “we’ll make a few stops, then we will get you to the East Coast.”

“I do hope some of those include restaurants,” Odd smiled.

“Can you think about something other than food, for once?” Aelita jumped in, giggling with a mischievous grin. “We’ll definitely hit a few restaurants, but isn’t there anything special you’d like to see?”

“I have dreamed of going up in the St. Louis Arch,” he considered.

My toes clenched in my shoes. “You’re on your own. I’m scared of heights.”

Odd looked over at me, grinning. “Not you, too, Cat Girl! I thought it was just Ulrich!”

“Ulrich, _Yumi, and Jeremie_ ,” I corrected, gradually trembling with my fists clenching, “but yes. Remember? I hated that j-jet, and the c-chopper…”

 _Mi novio_ grimaced when he saw how I was reacting to that. “Yeaaaahhh… maybe you’re right. I’ll just take Princess and the others with me.”

Yumi walked over to wrap me in a comforting, disarming hug, as Odd finished his sentence.

“Maybe there’s something different that we can all do.” Rubbing my back soothingly, she tried to tactfully change my wildcard’s plans. “Something that doesn’t involve heights.”

“I have always wanted to see a rodeo,” he realized. “Cat Girl, isn’t there a special thing in Nebraska that you loved when you were younger?”

That suggestion, along with Yumi’s gentle rubs and embrace, completely dissolved my worries. “You’re right! Nebraskaland Days! It happens every summer in North Platte. Plus, they always have a rodeo there. And a parade! Ooh. That’s a good land-based activity. And there’s a pancake feed, and a kids’ costume parade…”

I knew the words “land-based activity” would strike _mi novio’s_ funny bone.

“That’s great!” he chuckled, placing his right hand against his chest. “They’ve got almost everything, there!”

“Yeah,” I giggled. “They even have a Japanese restaurant.”

Yumi grinned. “Maybe we could eat lunch or dinner there, after visiting Nebraskaland Days.”

“Yeah, plus if there are some that don’t want—”

“Hey! I wanna have some sushi!” Kiwi protested. “Yumi’s mother’s was the best! At least save me a kitty bag!”

My geisha friend bent down toward Kiwi, placing her hands on her hips, and smiled at the dog. “Don’t worry, Kiwi. We’ll be sure to save you a few spring rolls and some others, okay?”

“I guess we can’t call them anything other than ‘take-out bags’ around Kiwi, can we?” Aelita added, with a cute giggle.

“Just not ‘doggie,’” the puppy barked.

Nearby, Hunter started to look a bit unsure, as he rubbed the back of his head with his right hand. “I… guess I wouldn’t mind giving that a try… I’ve rarely had Japanese food in the past… but I’m not really good at using chopsticks.”

Yumi turned to him, offering him a warm, reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Hunter. I’ll show you how to get the hang of them, before we get there. They’re really not that hard, once you get used to them.”

That relaxed him a bit. “Thanks, Yumi. I know you have to hold them a certain way, but I’ve only ever seen people do it; I’ve never really tried it for myself.”

“I’m sure we all could use the practice,” Jeremie smiled, voice cracking just a hair.

“I may have been an occasional guest at Yumi’s since that time I fell in the Digital Sea in her place, but there are times where I forget,” I nodded.

Yumi turned to me, next. “It’s okay. Sometimes it takes constant practice to remember. Maybe I should invite you over for supper more often.”

“True, even if it’s just a temporary deal, considering that you, and Hiroki by proxy, are boarders,” I smiled.

“That’s true, too.” She found my smile contagious. “But I’m sure my parents wouldn’t say no to having me visit for a while, and even bring one or two friends over.”

“I would love that,” I grinned.

Even Max was intrigued. “Is there a limit on how many friends your parents will let you invite?”

“Just as long as we don’t make a mess of the place. My dad hates it when the living room is trashed,” Yumi noted.

“Oh, your parents know me!” Odd replied with a grin. “I _never_ make a mess of the place!”

“That is true, surprisingly. He even cleaned up anything anyone else trashed. I was shocked he managed to water the bonsai,” I giggled.

Yumi giggled, too, bringing her hand up to her mouth. “You’re right. Dad was so surprised, he said Odd could come back anytime he wanted.”

“Anyway, we do plan to stop at Albion, Illinois, too,” Jeb smiled. “Cassidy, you have parents there, don’t you?”

“Yes. I have a lot of relatives from being from a twice-extended family,” I nodded. _Thank you, Jeb, for not playing the “Ignore Cassidy even though She’s Present” game._

“We’ll finally get the chance to meet your family,” Ulrich grinned, remembering something that had happened in the past.

“Yeah. It’s just going to be several leagues unconventional.” My cheeks heated up as I grinned.

“They can’t be any more unconventional than _my_ family,” William interjected. “Have you even met my parents?”

“Um…no?” I squeaked, feeling ashamed. “Remember?”

“You _almost_ did,” Yumi added, looking over at me. “The day we brought him back from Lyoko, and destroyed Jeremie’s clone.”

“But I had blacked out…”

“Aaaaat least you’ll get the chance to meet them sometime,” Jeremie jumped in, realizing both of us had a point. “And maybe you’ll see exactly how Cassidy’s family compares to yours, William.”

“Killer,” William smiled.

“And I was distracted by the fact that my folks didn’t show,” I pointed out.

“You’re right,” Sister’s voice drooped a bit, before returning to normal, not long after. “That’s why, when it happened again at the Assembly, I wanted to make sure you didn’t feel left out, dear sister! You’ve got family on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean!”

I nodded. “And I’m grateful for that.”

“That makes two of us,” Hunter noted, making me unsure if he was talking about what I said, or what Sister said. “And I can’t wait to show my parents that I met you guys, and we all became good friends.”

“That’s so great!” Yumi nodded in agreement.

“So, how are we gonna sleep in a couple areas?” Ulrich asked. “I’m sure that we won’t be able to spend time in a hotel often.”

“Oh, I don’t think that’ll be too much of a problem,” Jeb interjected, with a grin. “We’ll make sure you guys always find a good hotel, no matter where you are. We might even be able to get you ones with a spa, in some places. So you won’t have to worry about that.”

“Plus there are a couple hotels I’ve been in that feel so nice to sleep,” I smiled. “There’s a Stoney Creek Hotel in St. Joseph, Missouri. Nature themed, but it is so great.”

“That’s not bad,” Ulrich grinned at that idea. “It’ll probably be like sleeping under the stars, like if we went camping.”

“I’m glad that we are gonna be okay,” Sam agreed, sipping her soda.

“You said it,” Yumi agreed. “And going across the United States sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun, too.”

“At least we’ll use wheels instead of—” I started.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Kaitlyn reassured me, smiling in my direction. “We won’t need our wings. It’ll just be a nice, long, fun car ride. We can go sightseeing, walking through national parks, and even see what restaurants there are!”

“True. I just feel so scared of aircraft now. First XANA, then the whitecoats and Erasers… minus Ari…”

“None of us have to fly if we don’t want to,” Aelita reassured me, in her usual soothing, calming voice. “We can pretend we don’t even have them, and I’m sure we can find jackets that we can wear, that will hide them completely.”

“Also right…” I smiled. “Plus once we get confident enough, we can fly.”

As usual, my ex-boyfriend felt confident right out of the starting gate. “You don’t need to worry about that; I already feel confident! I can’t wait to spread my wings, and see what it feels like to be a bird!”

“Feel free to practice if you want to,” Max nodded. “But you know that you might want to see if they have grown to support you.”

“It took us years to get them to do that,” Fang agreed, towering over _mi ex novio_.

That took a bit of the wind out of his sails, his proud smile drooping, slightly. “Okay, okay. So I might need a bit of practice. But I feel like my wings are probably big enough to be able to lift me into the air.”

“My own weren’t enough to pick me up when Georgina gave me that lovely treatment,” I shot back. “They flapped a bit, but I stayed on the floor.”

He brought his hands up to his chest, their palms facing me. “Maybe you’re right, Cass. I might not be as ready as I think I am. After all, I ended up screwing up on my first Lyoko mission. So, don’t worry, I’m not gonna try to fly, until my wings are big enough to carry me. I’ve learned my lesson.”

I smiled, a deep breath calming me. “Thanks, William.”

“You’re not one who tries to steal the show, _are_ you, William?” Odd joked with a slight chuckle, folding his arms as he mischievously grinned at _mi ex novio._

“It might take them a while to grow,” Georgina soothed, “but I’ll be sure to help you take good care of them. Yours and everyone else’s, too.”

“That would work,” I nodded.

“I agree,” Jeremie added. “They should probably be washed, whenever any of us goes to shower. And it might be hard for us to wash our own wings, and then you’d also have to deal with how it might feel to have your wings washed, or if it will affect them negatively, or—”

“I’ve had Georgina help me so far, Jeremie,” Aelita reassured. _Proxy-pie._ “While Cassidy was sleeping in, she gave me such a luxurious bath. You were right—are you giggling, Cassidy?”

Indeed; this time, she caught me red-handed. But was I going to tell her that? “Sorry. I was thinking about a joke Odd said. That same one about the frogs’ legs.”

“Oh yeah!” Odd commented, before he burst out laughing, remembering the joke quite vividly. “That was hilarious!”

I then looked over at the others, seeing if anyone else remembered the joke, while I tried to keep my real reason for giggling a secret. Interestingly, I noticed Hunter was grimacing. At first, I almost giggled again, as I assumed he was reacting to Aelita’s talk of getting an invigorating bath from Georgina, but as I heard his thoughts, the look on my face turned to surprise.

 _I remember that… I’m sure you enjoyed it, too… hopefully washing my wings won’t involve washing the rest of my body, too… and_ what _the_ heck _is a “proxy-pie”, anyway?! That doesn’t even make sense!_

And then his eyes widened, as his thoughts ground to a halt. _Wait…_ how did I even hear that!!

My jaw felt such an urge to detach itself from my mouth, even though I tried, with all of my might, to keep my head together. How could Hunter have possibly heard what Aelita was thinking, too?! He wasn’t the psychic; I was! This didn’t make any sense at all. Did he have a secret that he was trying to hide from the rest of us? Was he just pretending? Or did something else happen to him, that I either forgot about, or don’t remember? This whole experience was just getting weirder and weirder. I wasn’t even sure if I should try calling him out on it, or what. Maybe it was a fluke, a one-time thing? There was probably a lot of radiation in the room where the whitecoats operated on us, so it might just be a temporary effect, and it would go away not long from now. But this was just too weird. I almost didn’t even know what to think about it.

“Are you okay, Cassidy?” Yumi jerked me from my thoughts, seeing my wide eyed look.

“Uh… Hunter… did I t-telepathically hear what I think I just telepathically heard you think?” I asked, not sure what to say to my geisha friend.

Hunter’s head snapped in my direction, his teeth gritting as his eyes widened. “Y-you did hear it… d-didn’t you?! All of a sudden, o-out of n-nowhere, I could h-hear Aelita’s mind… s-she thought of s-something, just as she was t-telling you about the… um, you know, that… thing… that Georgina gave her… and I h-heard it! I don’t know how, b-but I heard it!!”

My body couldn’t dive across the coffee table fast enough. “Please don’t say it out loud!” I pleaded. “Proxy-pie” was Aelita’s personal nickname for Jeremie, and while I knew to keep it a secret, I wasn’t sure if I could count on Hunter, if he really did have psychic powers, to do the same. Still, this whole entire mess was bugging the both of us like nothing else.

 He quickly slapped his hands over his mouth, slowly nodding his head, too afraid to say anything else.

Panting, my hands reached my collar and tugged it a couple times.

Seeing this, Dr. Martinez walked over to me. “Cassidy, honey, are you okay?”

My eyes shot up to her, my face paling. “Um… c-could we talk in private? You, H-Hunter, and me…”

She nodded, looking a bit concerned. “Of course. We can go into my office. Jeb and Georgina can come in with us, too.”

I nodded, finding myself unwilling to speak.

Dr. Martinez helped me to my feet, before gesturing to Jeb and Georgina to follow her. She put her arm around me, and I watched Georgina wrap her arm around Hunter’s back, as the five of us walked down the hallway, and into Max’s mom’s office. Before we left, I could see the others glancing at Hunter, each other, and me, about as confused as we were.

Once inside, Jeb gently closed the door behind us, and leaned against it.

“I—” I tried to squeak, but shivered in fear.

Hunter wasn’t faring much better, gesturing all around his head, as if trying to play a game of charades with us.. “What… uh… me, my mind! It’s like… how did we… Aelita… I can… think—”

“Hey, relax, you two.” Jeb stepped away from the door, placing his hands on our shoulders, and trying to be soothing. “Take a deep breath, and let’s start from the beginning.”

I tried to inhale, but it felt as if my throat was trying to constrict, from the sheer surprise and fear. I quickly stopped, exhaling fast as though my head had just broken the surface of a pool, and glanced over at Hunter. Maybe he’d have better luck than I was?

To some extent, a deep, cleansing breath did help him, but only just. “It was like… Aelita was talking…”

“HUNTER CAN READ MINDS!” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Hunter jumped backward, freaked out by my sudden outburst, while Jeb, Georgina and Dr. Martinez looked at the both of us, surprised to hear this. They knew I was psychic, thanks to the monster, but Hunter? Something didn’t add up.

“Is this what you were up in arms about,” Jeb asked, trying to fill in the blanks in his mind, “in the living room?”

“He was about to reveal something only _I_ knew until a few moments ago!” I squealed, body trembling, tears welling up in my eyes.

Georgina walked over, and wrapped her arms around me, before giving me a soft kiss on my temple. “Don’t worry, sweetheart… I’m sure this might just be a big misunderstanding, or something we can’t explain… there was a lot of radiation in the room where the scientists operated on you all, so he might be feeling the effects of that in weird ways.”

Georgina’s warm embrace helped me start to calm down, but I was still quite scared, as I sobbed into her sleeves. Hunter was starting to feel really freaked out as well, trying to keep himself together, but failing.

“I don’t—I d-don’t—I don’t wanna have him re-reveal… w-what Aelita h-had tho-thought…” I moaned, tears still streaming down my face.

Georgina began to softly and slowly rub my back, in an attempt to calm me down even further. “I’m sure he won’t. He looks scared enough as it is, almost as scared as you. Maybe I should help the both of you relax, after this. Maybe a nice, long bath for each of you will get rid of any radiation, to see if that’s what’s bugging him.”

Dr. Martinez cupped her hand around her chin. “That could work… I’m not exactly sure how safe that laboratory of theirs is… so that might be for the best.”

I nodded, still freaked out. “I’m so scared…”

“I understand…” Georgina soothed, before pulling me into a full-on hug. “Hunter’s scared, too. He looks like he’s about to overload.”

I tried to calm down for his sake, not wanting another empathy-induced panic attack, but found it slightly hard. Indeed, looking underneath Georgina’s arm revealed the black-haired boy was starting to shiver, tears streaming down his face as well, as Jeb softly rubbed his back, trying to get him to relax.

So I tried harder, as I didn’t want Jeb to feel he had to resort to stinging my neck, or even Hunter’s. Granted, that would help if Georgina tried to bathe him, but that wouldn’t be a good idea, regardless. I closed my eyes, and tried to take another deep breath, trying again and again until my throat felt like it would finally open up, and continued it with some calming thoughts, while Georgina gave me another soft kiss on my temple.

“You’re doing great, sweetheart… Just breathe…” she encouraged softly.

I could hear Jeb softly trying to console Hunter in a similar manner, the boy sniffing every few seconds.

“I… won’t tell them… anything…” he squeaked out, his chest heaving. “I’m… too afraid to…”

“T-thanks…” I breathed, starting to find my rhythm.

Georgina continued to softly and slowly rub my back, cradling me in her warm, comforting embrace like she was my mother, and I was her child. It was these sorts of feelings, along with her wonderful, invigorating pampering skills, that made me also wonder what would happen to her, once we got back to Kadic.

Nearby, Hunter had closed his eyes, trying to relax himself even further, aided by Jeb’s somewhat-gentle back rub, before he rubbed his eyes.

“This is… too weird…” he huffed. “Did the… whitecoats… do this… to me…?”

“It seems that way,” I answered, unsure of it myself.

Hunter covered his eyes with his hands. “I don’t even… they must’ve done something… to me… before I became an essence… that’s the only… way I can… explain it…”

“I wish I could have seen everything,” Jeb lamented. “But with the kinds of experiments the scientists tend to perform, they very well could have found a way to give you psychic powers, Hunter.”

“But it could also be the radiation in that laboratory, too,” Georgina reminded the two of us, before turning her gaze on Hunter. “I could pamper you first, before I wash you, to help you relax even better, but I should probably take care of you first, as the radiation seems to have affected you the most.”

She then turned her attention to me. “Cassidy, do you feel like—”

Before she could finish her sentence, I could see Hunter gritting his teeth, and he replied in a way I really wasn’t expecting.

“ _NO!!_ ” he yelled out, as if he had been storing up energy. “I don’t care if I have a lot of radiation in me; you’re _not_ washing me, Georgina!!”

She immediately turned to Hunter, a concerned look overtaking her features.

“Hunter, sweetheart,” she soothed, “if you’ve taken in too much radiation, it’s bound to poison you. At some point, someone’s going to have to give you a bath, to get rid of it. I’ll gladly give you a full-body wipe, full-body rub, and a massage, before I fill the tub, and help you into it. I’ll even put in bubble bath, and give you a nice, long, head-to-wing-to-toe wash, as softly, slowly, and thoroughly as I can. Once I get you into the water, and start washing you, you’ll calm right down and enjoy it. Don’t you remember how you were, when I washed you, back in the laboratory?”

He folded his arms, his eyes starting to leak, again. “But I really don’t _want_ to!!”

“Hunter, please…” Georgina cooed, not wanting to get angry at him. “I really care about you; we all do, and we don’t want you to get sick, if you do have radiation within you. Please, let me give you a bath.”

As she tried to get Hunter to change his mind, I had dropped to the floor, shaking in fear. He was scary when he yelled out loud. My system felt as though it was on fire from hearing him being a bit defiant. Tears welled up in my eyes. “H-H-Hunter… p-please…”

Jeb glanced over at Georgina, moments before he happened upon me, out of the corner of his eyes, and started to worry. He quickly ran over to me, just as Georgina walked over to Hunter, still keeping her soothing, warm demeanor. Ari’s father knelt down by me, and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a warm hug, as well.

“It’s okay, Cassidy,” he tried to soothe. “Take a few deep breaths, and try to relax. Georgina will handle Hunter. Can you relax for me?”

I could see Hunter start to cower, as Georgina approached him, before wrapping her arms around his trembling body, and giving him a kiss on his temple.

“Please, sweetheart… you know I’m always soft and gentle when I rub and wash you. You’re never going to get over your fear of bathtime, if you don’t let someone wash you. C’mon, let’s go into the bathroom. Let’s do it for Cassidy, if you don’t wanna do it for me.”

Hunter slowly closed his eyes, without saying anything, and took a few deep, trembling breaths, trying to relax himself, even though I could still tell he wasn’t liking the idea one bit.

 I closed my eyes, trying to breathe deeply. “P-please… Hunter…”

After a few more deep breaths from him, and how worried he was that he had scared me with his random outburst, he opened his eyes.

“F-Fine…” he muttered with a ragged sigh, still sounding reluctant.

Georgina began to softly and slowly rub his back, knowing that he didn’t like the idea, but trying to keep him calm, anyway. “There… that wasn’t as hard as you made it out to be. We can stay in there for a few hours. I’ll even let you stay in the water for an hour or more, and give you an incredibly relaxing, soothing, invigorating, and thorough, wash of every inch of your body, hair, and wings. You know you’ll love it, once I start washing you.”

Slowly, my mind started running on all four cylinders as my breathing deepened. “After him, could we get everyone else, including me?”

“Of course,” Georgina smiled, looking back at me. “Everyone except you and Aelita might all have radiation, so it would be a good idea. If anything, I could give her and you another full-body wipe, and maybe a rub and massage, instead.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I nodded.

“And we should let the others know what’s going on, too,” Dr. Martinez nodded.

“Just not… Aelita’s thoughts…” I gulped.

She nodded, as she neared the door to her office. “Not a word. That stays in here.”

“Thanks,” I smiled, reassured as I got to my feet and followed her out.

A few moments after I walked out of her office, I heard three more pairs of footsteps behind me, as Georgina led Hunter down toward the bathroom, and Jeb followed down the hallway, coming up behind me, as Georgina and Hunter entered the bathroom.

As the three of us neared the living room, I could hear the others talking.

“What do you mean, Cassidy keeps a checklist in her mind?!” I heard Ulrich protest, making my eyes widen.

“It’s true!” Odd replied. “She’s been trying to keep a note of everything weird that all of us do, to make sure that we’re who we say we are, and that we weren’t secretly operated on by Doctor Shrank, while she was in her coma!”

“Odd!” I cried, feeling distraught and betrayed, racing into the bedroom I slept in the night before. “That was supposed to be private!!”

“Huh?!” Odd whirled around, confused by what he had just heard. “Cat Girl?! Did she just…?!”

“I’m pretty sure she heard what you said,” Aelita folded her arms, lowering her eyebrows at _mi novio._ “And I don’t think she’s very happy with you.”

“But how was I to know she was gonna come out, when I was talking about it?” Odd interjected, starting to feel terrible.

“She said it was private!” Sister shoved a metaphorical knife into him. “You’re her boyfriend, so you’re supposed to respect that! Not go blabbing about it to your best friends!”

“Yeah, way to go, Odd!” Yumi chided him, her words dripping with sarcasm and ice, as she glared at him with folded arms.

I slammed the door, my back sliding down it, bringing my knees to my face as I wept. Why had this happened? First Hunter almost blabs one of Aelita’s secrets, because he suddenly found that he also had telepathy, and now Odd’s blabbing one of my secrets, like he was telepathic, too! _What did I do to deserve this?! Had everyone gone crazy?!_

It was a few moments later, that I heard a knock on the door.

“Can I come in?” It was Jeremie.

Rising to my feet, I slowly opened the door, tears streaming down my face like my skin was a window in the rain. “Y-yes…”

The bespectacled blond gingerly walked in, before gently and slowly closing the door behind himself.

“W-what’s w-wrong with _m-mi novio?!_ ” I asked him, my voice filled with distress and my chest heaving.

“Well, you see,” Jeremie began, smiling uneasily as he brought his hands up to his chest, nervously tapping his index fingers together, repeatedly, “Odd’s suddenly feeling… not quite like himself, for some reason. I have a theory as to his behavior, but it’s almost as random as what happened to Hunter.”

“T-that is…?” I whimpered, betrayal in every inch of my voice.

The blond immediately started waving his hands in front of his chest, now. “It’s—it’s not what it sounds like. He thinks he’s turned into a… well, a psychic, just like you are, Cassidy, and the sudden change gave him such a surprise, he wasn’t really sure how to react… but I assure you, he feels absolutely horrible about what you overheard, and wishes to apologize, but is afraid that you won’t want to talk to him, now.”

“A-a psychic… l-like ho-how he used to…?” I squeaked, trying to understand it all.

“Correct,” he nodded. “For some reason, out of nowhere, he suddenly claimed he was able to read Ulrich’s mind, and… well, he flipped out. He thought that the whitecoats had somehow given him a real-life Future Flash, and he immediately yelled at me for taking that power away from him on Lyoko, and when Ulrich asked him what was going on… somehow the subject got changed.”

“To which?”

He glanced at the wall, going back to banging his index fingers together, as if it were a nervous habit. “That’s, uh… that’s where things get really tricky. He, uh… started to claim he was… um… a real-life ninja-cat warrior, and that he knew all of his girlfriend’s—uh, I mean _your_ , secrets. And… that’s when he let out that you had… um… a sort of mental version of your vision journals. Naturally, Ulrich didn’t want to believe it at first, but, uh…”

He started to chuckle nervously, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand. “Odd can be really convincing when he wants to be…”

I trembled. “I—”

The uneasy smile slowly began to fade from his face. Even if he wasn’t good at reading others’ body language, he could make a valiant attempt every now and again. “But he’s really, really sorry for having told us that, and he wanted me to tell you that, if you wanted to see him, he would tell you that himself, and promise that he would never tell us anything like that ever again. He said he’s even prepared to beg, if he has to.”

For some reason, that almost made me giggle. “He doesn’t need to beg… But bring him in…”

He brought his fingers up to chest level, touching them together. “You… sure you wanna see him?”

“Einstein… he wants to do this…”

Jeremie nodded, before walking over to the door, opening it slightly, and sticking his head out to the right. “OKAY, ODD!! SHE SAID YOU CAN COME IN!!”

Jeremie soon stepped to the side, as Odd walked into the room.

“Hey, Cat Girl,” he slowly walked up to me, a look of regret on his face as he spoke in a small voice. “I just wanted to say I’m… sorry for doing that to you. It was really dumb, and if you never wanna talk to me again… I guess I can understand that. But I shouldn’t have done that to you!”

“You’re right, Odd. You shouldn’t have done that, but I had no idea that you had suddenly began to read minds, too.” I wrapped my arms around him, still trembling. “I do want to keep talking to you, plus you’re a great comedian… It would be selfish of me…”

He slowly returned the gesture, giving me a soothing and slow back rub with both hands, one that he knew I liked. “Yeah, it happened not long after you, Hunter, Jeb, Georgina, and Dr. Martinez went into her office. It was so weird! It was like I could hear these voices in my head, and they sounded like Ulrich, and Aelita, and… and Kiwi, too!”

“Kiwi’s, as well?” I asked, about to giggle.

“Yeah!” His eyes widened. “They were about dog treats, belly rubs, Tutu, and wondering what was taking _you_ so long! I didn’t think my diggity-dog could worry about humans!”

“He did apologize to Ulrich about the bedsheets,” I noted, about to explode into cackles.

Jeremie got a kick out of that, leading Odd to momentarily regain his usual  grin, before glancing over at Einstein.

“And _you_ thought my dog was brainless!” he chided.

That was all I needed to burst out laughing, realizing that _mi novio_ was absolutely right. That was my boyfriend… he always knew how to make me, and the rest of my friends, laugh. I couldn’t stop talking to him because of that, just like I had told him. _Now,_ there’s _all the jokes I thought had all but gone…!_

As Jeremie and I laughed up a storm, we were suddenly interrupted when the door opened, with Aelita behind it.

“Is everything okay, you three?” she asked, sounding worried.

“Yes, Aelita,” Jeremie smiled. “Cassidy had a bit of a misunderstanding.”

Odd nodded, grinning. “Don’t worry, Princess. Everything’s cool! Cat Girl’s back to her old self again!”

Aelita slowly found Odd’s grin to be contagious, a byproduct of the relief she felt. “That’s great. I was afraid something terrible was going to happen.”

“Jeremie told me, Aelita,” I smiled. “Plus, I don’t wanna break up with him. He’s helped me at the hospital, and our _noviazgo_ is still as strong as ever.”

“Better believe it!” Odd’s grin increased, as he gave Aelita a thumbs-up. “It takes more than a little misunderstanding to wreck my relationship with Cat Girl! If it weathered XANA, it can weather this, too!”

“Like, if he suddenly ended up insulting my love of horses, for example. I would not be afraid to pull my punches and get angry with him,” I blinked. “I mean, Hervé did it by accident, but I still gave him something to worry about.”

I felt him softly and reassuringly rub my back. “Besides, I’d never do that, anyway! But Hervé, he had it coming!”

“At least you didn’t hit him where he would be in terrible pain, Cassidy,” Aelita nodded.

“Hey, it was a shoulder punch. I wasn’t going for the chest or anything. Sure, he had a slight bruise for a week, but it wasn’t that awful.” I shook my head.

“I thought you were gonna dislocate his shoulder, Cat Girl!” Odd recalled that event slightly differently than I did.

“From the way you were angled that day, it seemed that way, but I wouldn’t do that. It was a reminder that if pushed, I will fight back hard. Plus, foreseeing Jeremie getting punched in the gut by Sissi, before we became bonded as sisters, I didn’t want that to happen to Hervé,” I grimaced.

Aelita’s smile faded from her face, as she looked at Jeremie. “I’m still sorry I had Sissi do that to you, Jeremie. I thought I was going to save Odd and Yumi from getting liquidated by her father, if I gave myself up to the Schyphozoa.”

“It’s okay, Aelita. You were doing what you thought was the right thing,” Jeremie reassured. “It may have hurt that day, but a little return trip, and I didn’t feel a thing!”

She perked up. “You’re right. Besides, I’m glad you left that note for Ulrich, Cassidy.”

“I wasn’t going to allow him to get his cell phone scrambled because Big Boy, Jr., affected anything electronic,” I smiled.

Moments before I finished my sentence, we were soon joined by Yumi, whose face also bore a smile, remembering that day quite well. “That’s how he knew how to turn it on, and set it up. If he hadn’t, he probably would’ve fiddled around with it, and he might not have been able to save us in time.”

“True, but at least Sister helped me that day,” I giggled. “I was doing well when she jumped in with a metal bar, knocking him away from me. I still remember that hug she gave me.”

And speaking of all things good, Sister just happened to overhear that part, as she walked in with a big smile on her face. “I just wish that Return to the Past hadn’t made me forget. But at least you all were nicer to me, for a while after that.”

“Yeah. We didn’t want your father under arrest for kidnapping. So we had to return to the past,” I blinked, looking over at her. “It was out of his control that day.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she agreed, with a nod. “I only made up that lie about him trying to blow things up to get Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita out of the detectives’ clutches. I know I didn’t believe you at first, then, but now I can’t believe I second-guessed myself.”

“It’s okay, Sissi,” Jeremie smiled.

“You have proven to all of us that you have what it takes to be a Lyoko Warrior about a week and three days ago,” I grinned.

Sister clasped her hands together, grinning happily. “That’s great! I’ve always wanted to be a part of your little group, and I’m so glad I could prove myself to you, dear sister!”

While Sister was ecstatic, Yumi found something I had said confusing.

“How’d you know the exact length of time, Cassidy?” She rubbed the back of her head in confusion.

“I’ve been trying to keep a hold of the days since our kidnapping has happened. That way it’d be a good measurement, and you can’t convert time into metric.” I looked at her.

“That’s true.” Jeremie was also surprised. “But I thought you would’ve blocked out that moment in your mind, given your reaction.”

“Kinda hard to do when you want me to be more open, Einstein.” I gestured in his direction. “I’m trying to bare my soul without doing too much of it, but I think I failed in some areas.”

“It’s a process that takes some time. But I’m sure even I and the others have failed, as we were supposed to be doing the same thing, only for you.”

“True. I mean, Odd almost had my tears retreat when we were abducted from Kadic. However, Yumi’s words had unlocked the floodgate.”

“I was worried, too,” Yumi lamented, her smile disappearing, “and I didn’t know if we were going to get out of that. I still wanted you to be strong, though.”

“They just came out of nowhere!” Odd interjected. “How could _any_ of us be strong? Even Ulrich and Kaitlyn felt like they were stuck!”

“My panic level was so high, even when the Eraser knocked me down,” I remembered.

“I think we were all panicking,” Jeremie commented, his voice drooping. “It’s not every day characters from a book series you and Yumi read decide to come to Kadic, and kidnap us.”

“At least we all got out of it safely,” Aelita reminded us. “But that was one of the scariest things I think I’ve ever been through.”

“How high does it rank?” I asked curiously.

“I’m not sure,” she replied truthfully. “I can’t make up my mind. Seeing the Men in Black kidnap Mommy ranks pretty high, next to losing my memories in Sector Five. But getting kidnapped by Erasers and whitecoats ranks just underneath the Schyphozoa attack.”

“I’d have to rank it in my book a number two spot. Next to losing you to XANA, it’s no contest.”

For some reason, _mi novio_ started to chuckle at that. “You’d compare getting kidnapped to getting attacked by the Schyphozoa?”

“Hey! XANA locked me in the Celestial Dome, Odd, just as I was having a vision—of one of the Sectors disappearing. By the time it was done, the damage was already taking over,” I retorted slightly. “Aelita was…yes…and he was going to take over the world.”

“Yeah, I know,” Odd started to calm down. “I just thought it was funny, how you’d compare something terrible, to something that didn’t even happen to you.”

Jeremie stared at him, slightly surprised by his reaction. “How can you find humor in that?”

“Odd is um...Odd?” I shrugged, wincing when I remembered that Dr. Martinez had warned me not to do that for at least a day as my neck burned. “Ow…”

Aelita immediately walked up to me, concern painting her features. “Is everything okay, Cassidy?”

“I’m okay, Aelita. Just jostled the site where Dr. Martinez had removed the chip,” I reassured.

Yumi walked over next, getting a good look at the gauze Max’s mom had taped to the side of my neck, checking it over to make sure I hadn’t loosened it.

“It’s still in place,” she reassured me. “Maybe we can help you to remember not to shrug, until it heals up?”

“That would work,” I smiled.

“Just don’t walk like an Egyptian!” Odd quipped. “Piece of cake!”

That struck my funny bone good, as I burst out cackling, nearly hugging my sides as I had a good laugh.

“There, ya see? A good dose of Vitamin Odd and she’s eating out of my hand,” _mi novio_ smiled.

Even Yumi got a slight grin out of that one, as she rolled her eyes at my wildcard. “Oh, brother…”

“Speaking of brothers, Yumi, have you gotten in contact with Hiroki, or your parents?” Aelita pointed out.

“I called my parents this morning,” Yumi replied, “but I haven’t called Hiroki, yet. I can always do that later.”

“That’s true. Kaitlyn called Aunt Katie, and Patrick called Uncle Hector,” Jeremie nodded. “I talked to my mom and dad. They are glad that the three of us are still alive.”

A moment after Jeremie finished his sentence, Ulrich walked in, a curious look on his face. “How come everyone’s in here?”

I couldn’t make sense if I tried. “Christmas presents!”

“ALRIGHT!!” Odd threw both of his fists into the air, before he fell backward, laughing his head off at my joke. I guess it was his turn to catch a bad case of the giggles.

Ulrich slowly began to grin as well. “Couldn’t we have waited until Hunter came out of the bathroom?”

“I guess we ended up worrying over Cassidy so much, we forgot to leave the room,” Aelita shrugged, abeam.

Odd slowly got onto his hands and knees as he calmed down. “Yeah! Why would we leave, when things were just starting to get interesting?”

I slowly drew a cool, cleansing, deep breath, slowing my cackling into nothing. “Sorry about that, Ulrich, sweetie. We ended up going a lot of directions with different topics in here.”

“That’s okay, Cassidy, I forgive you.” Ulrich spoke as he walked in, before raising an eyebrow. “But why’d you call me ‘sweetie’? Is Sissi rubbing off on you already?”

 “She might as well, Ulrich, honey,” Sister giggled. “We’ve spent time together for a good two months.”

His grin slowly returned. “Even longer, if you count her coma.”

“And I just couldn’t stand by and let those doctors hurt her!” Sister folded her arms, standing proudly with a smile on her face.

“And I’m thankful for that,” I blinked, a grin taking form.

“You really gave hospital security something to think about!” Odd praised her. “Guess those Pencak Silat classes really came in handy! And maybe Ulrich would’ve thought you looked pretty when your teeth sparkled, too!”

“If it weren’t for that dirty tactic, I would have let them have it tenfold. But I was caught off-guard,” Sister grinned.

“I should have paid more attention.” Ulrich waved to one side.

Sister turned a grin to her former love interest. “Don’t worry, Ulrich, sweetie. I made sure your sedation wasn’t in vain!”

“I barely felt mine,” Yumi recalled.

“But they nearly got Patrick, Kaitlyn, and me.” Jeremie’s mind’s eye showed him the look Dr. Chantal gave him, when she taunted him about how I might not ever wake up, and if they wanted me to suffer needlessly forever, only to be proven wrong, moments later.

“Yikes. I guess it was a good thing that I woke,” I winced.

“It was a _very_ good thing,” Aelita agreed, shining a disarming smile in my direction. “And your timing couldn’t have been any more perfect.”

“I think my body felt I healed enough so I could wake up and speak again.”

“That could be,” Jeremie began to hypothesize, “but then I also wonder if hearing our voices, indicating that we were in trouble, led you to make an effort to rise from your coma, in order to help us? But your theory might also be the answer.”

“Let’s see what Jeb thinks,” I smiled. “Both sound good, but he might have one, too.”

With this in mind, the five of us walked back down the hallway, soon finding Jeb in the living room, where we had left him and the others. We then popped the same question to him, curious about what he was going to say.

“Those are both good ideas,” he began, after we had explained both of our theories to him. “My thought would be that it might have had something to do with whatever liquids were being sent into your bloodstream, intravenously. There’s always a chance that they had replaced one bag with another, that would give your body enough enzymes to be able to recharge itself fully, within a much quicker timetable.”

“I don’t remember much of my coma, Jeb. There wasn’t a white light or anything. I mean, I know God kept me safe, but—”

“Oh, yes, He certainly did,” Jeb agreed, “but any number of factors could have contributed to your awakening. I almost wonder how long it would have taken you, if the doctors had given you a longer timeframe, rather than threatening to cut you off as early as they did.”

“I don’t know. I guess the first thing I remember before I woke was feeling my hand twitch, but I didn’t have any idea what was going on.”

“Then, maybe there’s no way to explain it,” Jeb smiled. “Cassidy, you are a special girl with extraordinary friends.”

“I don’t think I would have asked for anyone else,” I grinned, brushing the pink strand of hair away from my view.

Aelita excitedly wrapped her arms around me, letting out a giggle. “And we’re very glad to have you, and alive, as well, Cassidy.”

I returned the gesture, laughing. “Jeremie did say that you can’t always pick your friends, but in this case, I just knew that you all were very special.”

“In a way,” Jeremie admitted, walking over to my former first roommate and me, “we _didn't_ pick you; _you_ picked _us._ ”

“At least, the second time around,” Jeb added with a slight chuckle. “But all of you seem like one, big, happy, extended family.”

“A third extension that I would fight tooth-and-nail for. They fought for me, and I would do the same for them,” I nodded, my heart giving a happy little jolt.

“What wouldn’t we do for you?” Ulrich raised a fist into the air, almost reminding me of a similar gesture he made, when he wore that medical bracelet, an excited look gracing his features. “We’re Lyoko Warriors, stronger after all!”

“Better believe it!” _mi novio_ concurred, one of his Cheshire Cat-style grins overtaking his face.

“That’s right!” Jeremie grinned with his mouth closed, but I could still tell he was happy and excited.

“We’re all here to protect each other,” Aelita smiled warmly at me, “because that’s what friends are for!”

“You got it!” Yumi gave me a thumbs-up.

“We’re all in this together!” Sister agreed, beaming proudly.

“Yeah!” William jumped in, also giving me a thumbs-up. “And I’m gonna make sure I don’t let any of you guys down, ever again!”

“Hey, you helped during XANA’s weakening, so that’s a plus in my book,” I giggled.

“Killer!” he exclaimed, pulling a fist-pump. “See, I told you I’d redeem myself!”

“Plus you did try to snap me out of my relaxation trance, too,” I nodded. “I still wish I had been quick enough to enact Plan 120.”

He folded his arms, the smile slowly fading from his face. “Hey, what did Yumi and Aelita tell you about beating yourself up over that?”

Then his face softened a bit. “Besides, I don’t know how relaxing Georgina’s wipes, rubs, massages, and washes feel, so how can I blame you, anyway?”

“Georgina didn’t wipe me down that time. Just rubbed, massaged, and washed me extensively. Plus, she’s on our side. She’s trustworthy,” I smiled.

That was when Jeremie started to get slightly curious. “Speaking of Georgina, where’d she and Hunter go, anyway? We haven’t seen them, since you and Hunter went to talk in private.”

“Bathroom,” I answered matter-of-factly.

Odd chuckled. “Your axe hand is swift, stewardess.”

He got me good, again. I almost felt like I wanted to fall onto the soft carpet below my feet, as I started laughing my head off.

“Odd… You are doing so good,” Jeb chuckled.

It was Odd’s reply, his attack on my funny bone, and Jeb’s reaction to Odd’s quip that clued Jeremie in as to why I responded the way I did.

“Oh, now I get it,” Einstein cut in, enlightened. “That conversation didn’t go too well, did it?”

“It went as well as you’d expect. Odd’s not the only one who just suddenly can read minds. Hunter read Aelita’s by accident.” When he stared blankly at me, I blinked. “Hey, don’t look at me in that tone of voice. I’m not gonna say anything about what she thought.”

Jeremie’s forehead fell to the palm of his hand. “I don’t _believe_ this… first Hunter, and now Odd’s suddenly gaining some form of telepathy while accidentally blabbing about one of your secrets?! What sort of damage did those whitecoats deal us, before the beginning of our out-of-body experiences?”

Aelita merely looked at me, worriedly, as a blush slowly formed in both of her cheeks. “He’s… not going to tell, is he?”

“He said he wouldn’t,” I smiled in reassurance. “He said so in Dr. Martinez’s office.”

Kiwi woofed. “That’s good, guys! But I wonder how Tutu will now take me talking and having wings.”

Odd lowered himself down to his dog’s level. “Don’t worry, Kiwi. If Tutu really loves you for who you are, she won’t care about any of that.”

“True. She told me that she has a pedigree, and is a show dog, but she doesn’t really care how good her bloodlines are. She wants a love for life, like you dreamed of, Odd, Master.” He looked up and gently licked _mi_ _novio_ on the chin.

Odd blinked, and chuckled when his diggity-dog licked his chin. “See? Then what are you worried about? You’ll be fine, and so will Tutu!”

“I have to admit, it was funny when you almost took her home,” he laughed.

“Hey!” he playfully interjected. “I was so relaxed from my spa treatments, I couldn’t tell a seahorse from a wild boar!”

Man, did Odd know how to strike my funny bone! I doubled over in laughter once again, leading the others’ eyes straight to my wildcard in reply.

“Geez, Odd…” Kaitlyn smiled. “You know how to keep her occupied.”

He grinned at her. “Hey, if I wasn’t me, I’d laugh at all my jokes, too!”

“He ain’t _m-mi no-novio_ for _n-nada!_ ” I giggled.

“Better believe it!” Odd slightly cracked up at my reply.

“You are a good entertainer,” Patrick smiled.

That brought out another one of his Cheshire Cat-style grins. “Yeah, I know!”

“She’s always laughed at Odd’s jokes,” Jeremie noted.

“Even when he’s _not_ trying to be funny,” Ulrich added, a slight look of mischief decorating his face. “Sometimes I wonder if all she needs to do is look at him, to start laughing.”

“Actually, I laughed at his ‘Fan club’ joke,” Aelita admitted, a smile on her face.

“And I wasn’t even trying, then!” Odd reminded her. “Maybe one look at Odd the Magnificent Comedian makes _you_ start laughing, too, Princess!”

I drew in another deep breath, cooling myself down. “Odd… You’re my boyfriend, but that was great…”

Odd grinned at me, his version of “modest”. “Yeah! Where mere comedians have failed, Odd the Magnificent, Comedian Extraordinaire, demonstrates his great ability to make Cat Girl laugh until she needs to breathe!”

“Well, Jeff Foxworthy came before you, but I digress. Your jokes have class, Odd, all their own.”

He folded his arms in reply. “Better believe it! I don’t need to make jokes about rednecks! I’m great at everything else!”

“True. You are one-of-a-kind to me, Odd,” I smiled. “You have something within you.”

“Yeah.” Ulrich saw the opportunity to jump in, gaining a mischievous grin in the process. “But I’m not sure we want to know what that ‘something’ is.”

“Samurai…” I warned playfully. “Don’t make me sic your _novia_ on you…”

That got him confused. “Huh?” He glanced over at Yumi, who laughed when she realized what I was talking about.

“You might really wanna be careful, Ulrich, _anata_ ,” she jokingly warned him.

“Otherwise… you might be the victim of a certain ‘something,’” I giggled.

“Uh… uh, yeah… uh…” His words bounced around in his mouth, before he brought up his hands, waving them back and forth defensively. “That-that won’t be necessary.”

“Oh, _really_ now?” She turned a playful, yet mischievous gaze on him, folding her arms. “Are you sure about that?”

I smiled wickedly. “I’m sure she has something up her sleeve…”

“Cassidy’s right.” Yumi took a step closer to Ulrich. “C’mon, Ulrich. Don’t tell me you’re _scared_.”

Now I could tell Ulrich was forcing himself to put up a front. “Me? Uh—dah… I’m not… scared…”

He squeezed his eyes shut, mentally yelling at himself like his father used to. “What-whatever made you think I was scared?”

My eyes widened. “Yumi, I think we might need to step back.”

She looked over at me, and then back at her _novio_ , her mischievous smile slowly fading into one of concern, and her voice adapting. “Ulrich? You okay?”

His eyes opened, as his eyebrows lowered. “Oh, no, you’re not gonna pull _that_ one on me.”

“Ulrich, we’re really concerned, this time. We were just playing, but if it makes you uncomfortable, we’ll stop,” I frowned, scared for him.

It seemed like he could see and hear my concern, as his face softened. “I, uh… I’m fine. It was just, uh… you know.” He rubbed the back of his head, almost sheepishly.

He was distracted from this, when Sister walked up to him, a concerned look painting her face, and put her arm around his back.

“Ulrich, dear,” she began, knowing he was slowly becoming used to that nickname, no matter how much he hated it before, “if someone makes you uncomfortable, don’t be afraid to tell us. We’re all your friends, and we care about you. We don’t want to do something that makes anyone uncomfortable. Not you, not my dear sister Cassidy, or any of us.”

“It’s a bad habit of mine, I admit.” I lowered my head, almost hanging it.

“She’s right.” Jeremie approached him, coming to a stop next to Sister. “It’s something we all need to do better. Both speaking _and_ listening.”

“You’re right, Einstein.”

Feeling it was safe to do so, Yumi walked up to her _novio_ , wrapped her arms around him, and embraced him in a warm, comforting hug, while softly rubbing his back with her hands.

“Don’t worry,” she cooed softly into his ear. “We’re not gonna do anything that makes you uncomfortable, if we already know it does, or if you tell us, beforehand.”

She then turned her head in my direction. “And you’re making progress, Cassidy. If you can do it, Ulrich can, too. We all can.”

“I-I am?” I asked, head popping up in slight surprise.

Yumi nodded, reassuringly. “Of course! We can all see it.”

“H-how?” I wasn’t aware that I had made such developments.

“Just a short time ago,” Yumi cited as an example. “When you and Hunter freaked out, you pulled him aside. You could’ve just let it slide, but you took care of it.”

I blinked. “I just couldn’t let him suddenly blurt out Aelita’s inner thoughts—stop staring at me, Einstein; I ain’t saying it out loud—like that. It would hurt her in some respects.”

Jeremie blinked, before finally pulling his inquisitive gaze off from me. “Well, whatever it is, it must be really important, and it must affect me.”

Yumi giggled, closing her eyes with a smile on her face. “C’mon, Jeremie. You know she loves you. Why would she keep a secret like that from you?”

Aelita gave her knight-in-glasses a reassuring smile. “Yumi’s right. It’s nothing Earth-shattering, anyway. Besides, I would never hide anything important from you. You know that very well.”

“Plus, you probably already know it,” I grinned, keeping her secret safe.

Jeremie smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, you’re all right.”

Aelita gave Einstein a closed-eye grin, letting out a slight giggle at the same time. I could tell she was thinking about how cute her knight-in-glasses looked, whenever he acted like that.

Odd grinned, closing his eyes. “That’s so beautiful!”

Indeed, it was. My former first roommate and her boyfriend were always so cute together, and none of us hid our enthusiasm from them. It was almost like Odd and I, in a way.

But as we were fawning over the two computer intellectuals, the next interesting thing happened, involving good ol’ Samurai, himself.

At first, even he didn’t realize what had just happened to him, but once the voices in his head started taking over, his eyes widened, and his hands zoomed straight into his hair.

“What the—?!” His voice rose in fear, almost becoming frantic. “Did I just—?!”

“Ulrich?” I asked, trembling. _Ulrich?!_

His eyes zoomed straight to me. “Cassidy! I… I mean… your voice! It was in my head! How did—?!”

“I-it was? But—” I was trying to figure it out, suddenly getting an idea. Taking in a deep breath, I thought, _Ten gophers walked in a straight line._ “Now, repeat what I, um… said.”

His hands threatened to rip his hair from his head. “T-ten gophers w-walked in a… straight line!!”

Now it was my turn to join him in freaking out. “N-not you, too, Samurai!! First Hunter, then _mi novio_ … and now _you_?!”

Then Jeb’s eyes widened, taking a good guess as to what this meant. “Oh, no… the radiation must be taking over you, too, Ulrich.”

His eyes quickly shot down the hallway. “And Georgina probably hasn’t even started bathing Hunter, yet… you might have to go in there with him. There might not be enough time to wait.”

My breaths started coming out in ragged, quick gasps, whimpering. “What in Saul Hill’s going on with us?!”

Aelita and Sister immediately converged on me. My former first roommate pulled me into a warm, comforting hug, while the former snob gave me a very soft and slow back rub, with both hands.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Aelita soothed. “I’m sure we’ll figure things out. If it really is radiation, then I won’t be affected, as Georgina washed every inch of me, earlier. But I’m sure all of this will die down, soon.”

I took a short, shallow breath, trying to calm down. And it would’ve worked, too, had my former first roommate suddenly realized that not even a full-body wipe, nor a full-body rub, massage, or bath could have saved her from what was about to happen to her.

While she embraced me warmly, she felt something strange happen within her mind. It started out as a dull roar, but within a matter of seconds, what sounded like the voice of her beloved knight-in-glasses Einstein grew, until she could hear him talking in her head, even if he wasn’t moving his mouth. I heard her gasp, which spiked my own nerves, when she found this out.

“Cassidy…!” she breathed, once she realized what was going on. “It’s not radiation that’s affecting us…!”

“WHAT?!” I shouted.

She pulled away quickly, recoiling backward at the sound of my voice, having been caught off-guard. As she tried to explain, her voice grew shrill. “Cassidy, I’ve… I’ve become telepathic!”

The effect of Aelita’s sudden declaration caused me to lose my balance, and fall onto my back. “W—w—h—?”

Odd was nearly as flabbergasted as I was, as he gritted his teeth with wide eyes. “Oh, no! Not you, too, Princess!”

Jeb was surprised, too, but was able to think more logically.

“Strange… so radiation _isn't_ the problem, after all… now I really wish I _had_ seen what those scientists did to you, when they experimented on you. I’ve never seen anything like this!”

I now found myself unable to even string two syllables together, let alone rehearse my vowels. Everything was just spinning all around me, and I couldn’t find anything to grab onto.

Jeb noticed this, and quickly rushed to my aid, giving me a soft back rub. “Calm down, Cassidy… relax, take a deep breath… take a few deep breaths… just breathe easy… we’re gonna get through this, don’t worry…”

I took a shaky breath, but it was shallow.

“You can do it,” he continued gently encouraging me. “Keep trying, until you can take a nice, deep, cleansing breath.”

Yumi soon walked over, her hand joining Jeb’s in exploring the back of my shirt. “It’s okay, Cassidy… we’re all here, and we’ll all get through this together.”

Gradually, I took a deep breath, followed by another, and another. “W—A-Ae-Ael-Aeli-Aelit-Aelita?!”

“That’s it, Cassidy,” Jeb encouraged, noticing my progress. “You’re doing great.”

Aelita gradually relaxed as well, walking back over toward me, her hands softly caressing her temples in a circle. “It’s okay, Cassidy. It surprised me how soon it came on, but I think I’ve got it under control. I’ll just have to get used to hearing voices in my head, from now on.”

I wrapped my arms around her, body trembling. _Why couldn’t we—?_

“Easy, Cassidy…” my former first roommate soothed before I could finish my thought. “This has been a big day…”

“She’s right,” Dr. Martinez agreed with a nod, as she approached the two of us. “I think we all need to have a chance to relax. This might continue, and affect all of you, but rather than worrying about it, I think we should all calm down, unless it’s going to affect our mental or physical health.”

“Do you think Cassidy would benefit from another nap?” Jeremie asked, trying to be calm for all involved.

“But didn’t she just _have_ a nap?” Odd was confused; it had been at least an hour ago, after all.

“She did,” Yumi realized. “But she’s getting really shaken up. Do you have any ideas, Odd?!”

Odd’s eyes widened, surprised my geisha friend was getting slightly defensive. “Okay! I thought she could get a massage, or at least a back rub, but since Georgina’s still pampering Hunter… anyone else good with personal care?”

Sister’s eyes widened, as a grin sliced across her face. “I just might have the ideal solution…”

While my mind was still somewhat clouded by our current situation, Ulrich seemed to realize where things were headed.

“What are you gonna do, Sissi?” he asked, sounding confused, yet curious. “Are you gonna try to rub her?”

“Something much better than that, Ulrich, honey. Something that she will enjoy,” Sister nodded. “Jeb, do you think you could carry her to the couch, please?”

Jeb nodded, before gently picking me up, holding me as if I were his daughter, as well as Max, and carrying me over to the couch, while Ulrich watched, confused.

“We should… probably leave the room, shouldn’t we?” Ulrich scratched his head.

“If you don’t want to watch the movie _I know_ my dear sister loves, then you are in your own right mind to leave, Ulrich, dear,” Sister smiled, as she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm, comforting cuddle.

“Movie?” Jeremie asked, curiously.

“Of course, Jeremie, honey. She always loved movies. And thanks to the monster, I know the exact one she will relax more to.”

“Bu-but does Dr. Martinez even have it?” he protested weakly.

Ella grinned, walking over to a shelf and taking a DVD case from the middle. “Is this the one you’re looking for, Sissi?”

Examining the case, Sister nodded, her smile growing. “That’s the one, Ella, sweetie. Could you be a dear and pop it into the DVD player and turn on the TV, please?”

“Of course!” Ella replied, happily doing as she was told. In a matter of seconds, the TV and DVD player were turned on, and the disc was inserted into the drive.

“Which movie did you pick out?” Ulrich asked. “ _Van Helsing_?”

“No, something more with horses than monsters, Ulrich, dear,” Sister sang.

While Ulrich was confused, Jeremie merely took a few moments to figure out what movie Sister wanted to play, based on my likes.

“Like… _Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron_ , by any chance?” Einstein suggested, a grin slowly sprouting on the lower half of his face.

Sister smiled more, grasping the DVD remote in her free hand. “Right again, Einstein!”

Even Aelita found herself smiling happily at Sister’s choice. “That’s a wonderful choice, Sissi. Cassidy will love it!”

“And, knowing her, she’ll probably start singing the songs,” Yumi chuckled.

Odd grinned, closing his eyes as a chuckle escaped his clenched teeth. “That’s Cat Girl! You know, I think I might watch it with her! Can someone make some popcorn?”

His gaze then panned the room. “Anyone wanna join us?”

“I’d love to,” my former first roommate smiled.

Ulrich shrugged. “I guess I could see what it’s about.”

Yumi grinned, walking over to find a spot on the couch. “Sounds great!”

In fact, everyone else thought it was a good idea, or at least felt like watching it, to the point where the couch could barely hold all of the viewers. As William found an open spot on the couch, he suddenly became curious, when he realized one member of the group was still missing.

“What about Hunter?” he asked, looking a bit concerned. “Georgina’s probably giving him a body rub, by now.”

“He’ll probably join us later,” Jeremie reassured. “If not, I’m sure Cassidy wouldn’t mind rewinding the movie to the start when he does come to us.”

A horse’s neigh on the TV made me turn my head to the screen, just as a buckskin Kiger Mustang stallion galloped to the viewer and the background around him disappeared. I giggled as I realized that the movie was on the main menu. Soon the usual disclaimers appeared, before the Dreamworks logo started. The opening notes made my heart sing with relaxation as I hummed along.

Odd squeezed his hand free and dug in his pocket, sliding a 20 Euro bill in Ulrich’s direction. However, to his surprise, Samurai shoved it back to my wildcard. _I didn’t make a bet with you, Odd!_

 _Oh..._ he muttered in his head.

Although Aelita and I could hear their exchange, we ignored it in favor of the movie. I hummed and sang along to the songs I loved when the time came for them. “Here I am. This is me. I come into this world so wild and free. Here I am, so young and strong, right here in the place that I belong…”

As she listened to the song, and my singing along with it, something about it spoke to her. It reminded her of a time, which seemed long ago, when Jeremie had finally materialized her, and the way she thought. In a way, she was like a newborn, coming into a world that seemed so new and foreign to her. She had absolutely no memory of who she was, or what she had been; she could only focus on the present, and adjust to her new life, both on Lyoko, and on Earth.

“It’s a new world, it’s a new start. It’s alive with the beating of a young heart… It’s a new day, in a new land, and it’s waiting for me. Here I am…” I sang, feeling myself get swept away with the movie.

Sister giggled, smiling at the little colt blowing a milk bubble. “Aw…”

And so it went. We enjoyed the movie, laughing at the moments that were funny, feeling the right type of emotions when there weren’t and so forth. Jeremie’s and Ulrich’s collective eyes widened when Spirit met Rain, a paint horse that belonged to the Native American Lakota Little Creek. The scene seemed to be a frame by frame representation of how they met Aelita and Yumi and all their beauty.

Soon the movie drew to the final climax, Spirit jumped across the gorge with Little Creek on his back, prompting cheers from everyone who hadn’t seen the movie. I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but smile with pride. I loved that scene.

Soon, the mustang reunited with his herd, bringing Rain with him.

“That was really cool,” Odd smiled.

“The horses never spoke a word, yet we could understand them,” Kiwi agreed.

“The songs were perfect. Were they done by Bon Jovi, Cassidy, sweetie?” Sister asked.

“No, Sister. It was Bryan Adams. He’s a famous singer,” I giggled.

“I remember him singing ‘Summer of ’69’ on the radio a couple times,” Ulrich mused, now over the fact that he now could read minds.

“It is a good song,” Aelita nodded.

And not only was that true, but it had seemed like Spirit had calmed me, and entertained everyone else. So things were going to be better now, right? Right?

It would have been, had something not happened to Yumi, nearly wrecking everything the movie had done to me. It was like Spirit: one moment I was free, then the next…more ropes.

“Odd, no, you are not getting more popcorn!” my geisha friend suddenly yelled, slicing through the silence following Aelita’s answer like _mi ex novio’s_ zanbato.

I sighed, trying not to freak out. “You, too?”

She soon let her forehead land in her hand, her eyes closing. “It seems that way… I guess I’m the next to become a telepath.”

I gulped, feeling myself shake. “I don’t know what is going on, but this is scaring me!”

Sister approached me, placing her arm around my back, with a worried look on her face as well. “It’s scaring me, too! Why are we all suddenly able to read each others’ minds?!”

“Do you think it was our out-of-body experience?” Aelita asked.

“If it is, it’s definitely not anything I’ve ever heard of,” Jeb remarked, trying to get a grasp on everything that was going on. “My only suggestion is that the scientists might have done other things to the twelve of you, before your out-of-body experience began, and the avian DNA was injected into each of your bodies.”

“Jeb may have a point,” Jeremie agreed, pushing his glasses up over the bridge of his nose. “After all, we only saw bird DNA injected into our bodies, and in your case, Cassidy, Aelita’s DNA as well. For all we know, there might have been a sizable delay, between our sedation, and our out-of-body experience, during which the whitecoats could have done anything at all.”

Odd turned to look at Jeremie, confused. “So you mean that, when Georgina helps Hunter into the bathtub to wash him, he might grow gills and fins, and turn into a fish monster?”

“Not exactly, _Novio_ ,” I blinked, having a hard time trying to calm myself. “I don’t think anyone will turn into a merperson. I mean, that would make us very uncomfortable.”

“Cassidy’s right,” Ulrich nodded. “We just have wings, and telepathy attached.”

And speaking of telepathy, it didn’t stop there. If Yumi’s sudden reception of the gift set me off-guard, imagine what finding out Jeremie was next would do to me. But we didn’t figure it out, at first.

Jeremie was contemplating the reasons why some of us had mysteriously become telepathic, when another thought flew into his mind, one he wasn’t expecting. Starting as a dull roar, just like what happened to my geisha friend, he soon found his darling pink girlfriend’s soothing, calming, and disarming voice echo through his mind, saying two words he never thought he’d hear, at least when others were around: _Proxy-Pie._

At first, he couldn’t believe what he had heard. He quickly looked in Aelita’s direction, surprise overtaking his features, earning him a blush from his pink-haired beloved, who couldn’t help but wonder if he had heard it. But since it was something she only used when he was the only one around, he wasn’t about to go blabbing it to his friends, as Hunter had nearly done, an hour ago.

Still, the whole thing surprised him greatly, regardless. He also knew how I would react, which was another reason why he just kept it to himself. Unluckily for him, though, I not only read his mind, but his face, and instantly picked up on it.

My hand went to my chest. Things only seemed to want to get worse from there. This wasn’t like William walking around with his XANAfied suit on during the assembly; it was worse. My ribs rattled, and I couldn’t find breath. I hoped my entire body wasn’t planning to seize up on me, as though I was cold with inadequate clothing on, and another emerging telepath would have easily pushed me that far.

Sister quickly pulled herself in front of me, and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm hug, the concern and worry pushing her voice to high levels. “No, sister dear! Please, calm down! You’ve got to! Just relax!”

Jeb walked over to me, his face looking similar to Sister’s, but his voice was calmer. “She’s right. Take some deep breaths, and it’ll be okay. Having a few more telepaths isn’t going to cause XANA to return so soon after his weakening.”

As Sister started to softly and slowly rub my back with both hands, I closed my eyes, trying to let her relax me. She gently caressed my wings, causing a shiver of relaxation to shoot from my shoulders to my spine, down the column, and into my muscles. My breathing gradually regulated as my heart started to slow into a normal rhythm.

A smile slowly grew across her face, as she listened to my breathing return to normal.

“There,” she soothed, keeping up her soft, gentle caress. “That’s what I like to see… you really don’t need to worry, dear sister. It’s not gonna be the end of the entire world if more of us get the power to read minds.”

“Sissi’s right, Cassidy,” Yumi agreed, smiling calmly and reassuringly at me. “Just because I’ve become a telepath like you, doesn’t make me any different.”

I opened my eyes, looking at her. “This is just happening so fast, I can’t keep up. It’s nothing against you or anyone. This is just coming in like a freight train. Or a hockey zamboni into a horde of deader-than-dead zombies.”

Ulrich glanced around at the others. “She’s right. Each of us is gaining mind-reading powers so quickly, she doesn’t have time to adapt, before the next one gains their powers. There’s gotta be some way to slow it down.”

“I’m not sure that there is,” Jeb threw out, confused. “We could always try all sorts of different things, from random drinks, to random foods, or even something like putting all of the non-telepaths into the bathtub. But I’m not sure what would work, if anything.”

While Jeb was trying to figure out a solution, the door to the bathroom finally opened, and before Hunter walked out, fully clothed with wet hair and wings, myself and the others who had already gained telepathy could all hear an interesting thought coming from his brain.

_Ugh… my skin already feels slimy… see, this is one of the reasons why I really don’t like baths or showers, Georgina… I don’t know if it’s that Dove soap, or what… the soap I used to wash myself with did it as well… but I do appreciate that long, slow, and soothing second full-body wipe you gave me, after you rinsed me off, and helped me out of the tub. I only wish that had gotten rid of the slimy feeling on every inch of my body..._

In reply, Aelita turned to look at him, a slight look of surprise painting her face, as if she wasn’t sure how to reply.

Hunter, for his part, wasn’t sure, either. _Why’s Aelita just staring at me?_ He thought, his eyebrows raising slightly.

I hid myself on the side of the couch. This was _not_ going to end well, if the discussion in Dr. Martinez’s office were any indication. I didn’t want to put myself through any stress.

“Is… everything okay, Aelita?” I heard Hunter ask my former first roommate, curiously.

“Well… uh…” I could tell she was trying to find the most tactful way to spill the beans. “I was thinking, Hunter… when we all get back to Kadic… the next time Georgina gives you a nice, long wipe, rub, massage, and bath, I could… have her wash you, or wash you myself, with the soap I wash myself with… and see if that doesn’t make your skin feel slimy?”

Hunter’s eyes went to the ceiling for a brief moment. “Well, I guess it’s worth a try. If not yours, then—”

And that’s when it hit him. “Wait—wait… _how_ did you—?! Did you just—?! Aelita, did you…”

I gulped, awaiting the not-made-in-Gazzy-and/or-Iggy explosion the house was about to receive. My knees met my chest as I pulled my hands over my head to a duck-and-cover position. Unfortunately, that motion made my neck twinge in pain, and my wings shoot open, tearing up my bra and shirt on the spot.

And it seemed as though Aelita was fearing something similar, as she calmly walked up to Hunter, and placed her hands upon his shoulders, before giving the black-haired boy a calming glance. “Hunter… while you were in the bathroom with Georgina, we… discovered something. First, we figured out that the cause of your telepathy wasn’t radiation, but we didn’t want you to think Georgina wiped, rubbed, massaged, and washed you for nothing. Second, the reason why we found out it _wasn’t_ radiation, was because… well, you’re not the only one who can read minds.”

Even though Aelita was trying to keep Hunter calm, the boy was still getting quite worked up. “W-w-wait… s-so you can… r-read minds, too? I-is that what y-you’re saying?!”

Aelita embraced Hunter, hoping a warm, comforting hug would help him calm down, as Yumi approached him, next.

“Not only her, but Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie, and I, as well,” she calmly explained. “Odd discovered his while you and Cassidy were in Dr. Martinez’s office, and Jeremie, Ulrich, and I got ours while Georgina was washing you.”

Of course, that was when Patrick and Kaitlyn suddenly felt strange feelings within each of their brains, as well. After a few moments, they could hear my thoughts, read aloud in my own voice, slowly get louder and louder, until it sounded as though I was standing in front of them. Their eyes widened, and they shared a worried glance, too afraid to mention this to everyone else, if my and Hunter’s reactions were any indication to how well it would go over.

Hunter closed his eyes as he returned Aelita’s warm hug, trying to let it relax him, even as she began to softly rub his back. “Okay… okiday… interesting… so, a-are we all gonna become telepathic…? Or just the six of us?”

“I don’t know,” I said, keeping myself in my spot.

Yumi soon glanced over at me, before bouncing back to Hunter. “But no matter how many of us get telepathy, we shouldn’t let it bother us. The whitecoats could have done much worse to us, than just giving us psychic powers, bird DNA, and in your case, Cassidy, a strand of Aelita’s DNA. Like Odd said earlier, you could have easily turned into a fish monster, when Georgina helped you into the bath, Hunter. So why don’t we try to relax, and if the rest of us find out they can read minds, too, then let’s just chill?”

I shivered. “I think I ripped my shirt…”

Sister walked over to double-check, soon nodding with a look of concern on her face. “You did, sister, dear. It must’ve happened when your wings popped out.”

“It was my favorite… now what?” I whined.

In reply, Dr. Martinez walked over, picked up the Twilight Sparkle blanket that Hunter had given me for my belated birthday, unfolded it, and wrapped it around the upper half of my body.

“There,” she soothed, once she was finished. “That should help you stay warm for now. Then, on your travels, if you happen to come across another one, we’ll buy it for you.”

“Okay, but there’s the no shirt, no shoes rule. I’d look like one of those people—”

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Jeremie interjected, sitting down on the couch next to me. “If we have to, one of us will go in, and buy a shirt for you. Besides, I’m sure we could find a store that doesn’t have that rule, or we could say that... that… you didn’t feel like wearing anything above your waist.”

Before I could agree to or rebuke the idea outright, my body vibrated, just like my entity did after the whitecoat petted me and before getting injected with bird and Aelita’s DNA. “I think I’m getting a vision…”

Just as always, my eyes clouded in front of me. Within my mind, I could see the twelve of us, along with Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, driving down a highway, and the side door suddenly sliding open, with Jeremie getting sent flying out, over the guardrail, and off the bridge, yelling in fear as he fell.

In reality, I yelled, _“JEREMIE, NO!!!”_

Jeremie’s eyes widened in fear, as he grabbed my shoulders, and began gently shaking them.

“Cassidy!” he called out, worriedly. “Snap out of it! You’re having a vision!”

“No kidding, Einstein! She told us!” Odd snapped.

Quickly giving my wildcard a glance, before turning his head back my way, Jeremie lifted one hand up, and gently backhanded my head, hoping it would snap me out of it, like normal.

I blinked, my eyes clearing up to reveal Hunter and Jeremie with wide eyes, Ulrich staring confused, and everyone else bearing concerned glances.

“What?” I asked, unaware that I had yelled out loud.

“It sounded like something was going to happen to Jeremie,” Aelita said in a worry-filled voice. “You said ‘Jeremie, no!’”

 “Because something bad _will_ happen to Jeremie!” I replied, sounding a bit frantic.

“Hang on!” Jeremie raised his hands into the air, trying to calm everyone. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s no big deal. I don’t think something is going to kill me, or seriously hurt me, so why don’t we all take a deep breath, and try to relax, huh?”

That had the opposite effect on me, big time. For the first time in ages, I started pacing around the room. “Oh, yeah?! What about being flung out a van going the speed limit on the interstate, having no flying lessons learned, wings not even able to support you, over a bridge _to your doom_?!”

Jeremie’s attempts at calming everyone had been completely slashed to pieces, with that. His eyes widening, I could feel him getting nearly as frantic as I was.

“ _WHAT?!_ ”

Yumi quickly walked over to the bespectacled blond, placing her hands on his shoulders.

“Jeremie!” she tried to calm him. “You’ve got to calm down. If you’re as worried as Cassidy is, we’ll never be able to find out when that’s going to happen to you, and why. We might even be able to prevent it.”

“Yeah,” Hunter agreed, coming up next to Yumi. “It’s just a vision. We can probably figure out when it happens, and then do whatever we can to stop it. We can change the future, if we know when it happens, can’t we?”

My geisha friend wrapped her arms around the blond, embracing him in a warm, comforting hug, which helped him relax.

“Don’t worry,” she soothed, calmly cooing into his ear. “Just because Cassidy saw it in a vision, doesn’t mean it has to come true.”

In a few moments, Jeremie replied, feeling calmer than he had been. “Yeah… you’re right, Yumi. I was worrying too much. I thought she had envisioned me getting killed from the fall, or slamming into something on my way down…”

With one last soft, soothing rub of Jeremie’s back, Yumi broke the hug, and proceeded toward me, kneeling down in front of me, and placing her hands upon my bare shoulders, softly rubbing them in circles.

“We’ll find a way to prevent that from happening.” She gave me a warm, comforting smile. “Don’t worry about it. Just try to relax, okay, Cassidy?”

“I-I’ll try… b-but th-that was s-so—”

“We know.” Yumi softly and slowly rubbed up and down my bare arms, next, as if she thought that caressing my bare skin would help me relax more easily. “Your visions usually are. But just because you see something happening, doesn’t mean it can’t be prevented.”

Slowly, my brain ran on all cylinders. “I tried to prevent a couple things from happening in the past, but I messed up in some parts.”

“Then tell us everything you remember seeing,” Ulrich suggested, trying to form a plan. “If we know what leads up to it, we can try to stop that from happening in the first place.”

So that’s what I did. Starting from the first thing I saw, I told everyone everything, from the speeding van, to the door suddenly sliding open, and Jeremie getting shot out. However, when I went to explain the face I saw Yumi make, I realized that was when the vision abruptly ended. I knew Yumi did something, but I couldn’t exactly remember what she did.

Immediately after, everyone could see why I was freaking out so badly, as they were now more worried than they had been. Even Jeremie was flabbergasted, especially since the vision involved something terrible happening to him. The room was filled with wide eyes, raised eyebrows, gritted teeth, and looks of fear, and nobody knew what to say, next.

“I’m—I— _I don't want Jeremie to die!_ ” I whimpered, my body shaking and my mind overloading.

“Then we’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t die,” Jeb interjected, trying to sound positive, as he and Georgina walked closer, with Max and Ari’s father standing in front of me, and the former whitecoat finding a spot on the couch next to me, embracing me in a warm, comforting cuddle.

“He’s right,” Georgina soothed, starting to softly rub my bare back, aiding Yumi, who continued to give the same gentle treatment to my bare shoulders and arms, “weren’t we all just talking about how we could try to change things, so Jeremie doesn’t fly out of the side door of the van? I think we can do it, if we work hard enough.”

“Maybe we just… don’t take the highway?” Hunter jumped in, trying to calm himself as well.

“That won't work, and you know it,” Aelita ascertained.

Georgina continued to comfort me, cuddling me warmly, and softly rubbing my bare back with both hands. “I think it’s time you and I headed back into the bathroom, don’t you? A good bath will calm you right down. I’ll even give you a soothing and thorough full-body wipe, full-body rub, and full-body massage beforehand if you like, or even massage you while you’re in the tub, while I wash you. How does that sound, sweetheart?”

“G-good.”

“Shall I help you up, dear? Are you okay like this, or would you rather keep that blanket around you?”

“Keeping the blanket on until we get into the bathroom…”

Georgina nodded, before pulling away from our warm embrace, and making sure the Twilight Sparkle blanket was gently, but firmly, wrapped around my upper body. She then placed her arm around me, moments before she glanced over at Hunter.

“How about you, Hunter, sweetie?” she calmly asked him, giving him a comforting smile, as well. “I’m sure someone could take you into a bedroom, and give you a massage, if not a body rub. I could even wet down another washcloth, so they could give you a full-body wipe, too.”

“I’m good,” he nodded, looking a bit less worried than he had been.

“M-may I go in?” Jeremie requested, pale as a sheet.

Georgina glanced over at me. “That’s up to Cassidy. She might not want you to see her naked, dearie.”

 _“Él es mi amigo_. Of course, he can,” I whimpered.

When the older woman turned to my friends, Odd found a reason to smile. “She said Jeremie’s her friend.”

“Oh, good. That one threw me for a loop. I tried to get the hang of it in high school, but couldn’t string two words together,” she beamed.

Jeremie grinned. “Italian is Cassidy’s and my kryptonite.”

“It’s true,” I muttered.

“I’m actually better at something than Einstein!” Odd gloated, as if he couldn’t believe it. “Who knew he and Cat Girl would fail at Italian?”

I felt my cheeks heat up, more humiliated than defensive. “Hey…”

His face drooped a bit. “Don’t worry, Cat Girl! I told you I’d give you lessons! It’s just second nature to me, that’s all!”

“I got so worried that Dad would—”

“My father would not chastise you for failing a test!” Sister jumped in, correcting me instantly. “Only if you fail it repeatedly, no matter how many times others try to help you! You don’t have to worry about Daddy, sister, dear. He’ll only try to get someone to tutor you.”

I took a deep breath, something that I sorely needed. “Okay… Sorry about that…”

She walked up to me next, a soothing, calming smile overtaking her features as she looked down at me. “There… now don’t you worry, dear sister. Everything’s going to be just fine.”

Her attention then turned to Georgina. “I think I’d like a bath, too, Georgina. It looks like my dear sister could use a team bath, and if we both wash her at the same time, I’m sure she’ll relax even more.”

“That would sound good,” Aelita agreed.

Georgina nodded, her smile unchanging. “That sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s all go into the bathroom. I’ll wipe, rub and massage the two of you at the same time, or you or Jeremie can help me, Sissi.”

She soon gently helped me to my feet, and slowly walked me down the hallway toward the bathroom, with Sister and Jeremie right behind. Stepping into the bathroom, we found it in the same state it had been, after Georgina had bathed me, the day before; she was good at cleaning up, so it was quite hard to tell she had bathed Hunter, earlier. Once all four of us were inside, Georgina closed the door to the bathroom, and helped me into a sitting position, before going for a bunch of towels in one of the cabinets.

I pulled my knees to my chest, still shaken up from the vision. They had scared me a few times in the past, especially with such things as fighter jet flights, and Yumi’s possible run-in with a series of vines, but nothing like this had ever happened, especially with the possibility of someone nearly dying. The last thing I needed was having our Einstein possibly going splat when his wings weren’t even fully grown.

Nearby, Georgina had began to pull towel after towel out of a cabinet, making two soft beds for Sister and I, as the former began taking off her clothes. As the two continued their work, Jeremie dropped to his knees in front of me, and I could tell he was not only worried as all get out, but curious about what I saw.

“Cassidy…” His voice was shaky, but I could feel he wanted to know. “Can you remember… where we were… when I fell out of the van…?”

“I’d rather forget the thing altogether!” I squeaked. “But w-we w-were over some b-bridge… I d-don’t remember i-if there wa-was a river…”

Einstein’s teeth clenched, his worry increasing. He really wanted to know the entire story, but given my own emotional state, he could understand I was just as freaked out, if not more so, than he was.

“T-t-t-that’s okay,” he chattered out. “Y-you don’t need to… t-t-tell me everything. I-I-I understand.”

I slowly drew in a deep breath. “T-thanks, Jeremie…”

“D-don’t worry about it.” He put a shaky hand atop my bare shoulder. _Sheesh, now I think I should get a bath, after this..._

 _You’re not the only one, Einstein, honey._ Our eyes widened as we heard another voice enter our minds. The most surprising part was, it wasn’t Aelita’s or Yumi’s… but Sister’s.

Looking up, I could tell she realized it, too, as she gasped, freezing in mid-motion as her pants were halfway down her legs, revealing her bra and underwear. “Huh?! Now… now I can read minds, too?!”

Raising my mental shield, I nodded. _Keep calm… this isn’t Attack of the Erasers, Parte Dos. Just breathe._

Sister looked at me, her own teeth gritting out of fear, as a worried squeak escaped between them, as if a rat had torn up another one of her fancy party dresses in front of her.

“But… why me?!” she whimpered, next. “I thought it would only be you and your other friends! They must have done it to me, too!”

“Maybe because of your efforts to keep me safe, then everything else.” I tried to remember not to shrug. “It could be that.”

As Georgina finished building the second bed of towels, she turned to Sister with a warm, comforting smile, as she reached for three washcloths, next.  “Don’t worry, Sissi, sweetheart. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not going to hurt you in any other way. You can relax. Why don’t you finish getting undressed, and I’ll tend to Cassidy?”

She nodded, resuming her original quest. Once upon a time, the sight of Sister in her underwear made me think she would put on a party dress to impress Ulrich. Now, it didn’t faze me at all.

I had lowered my shield when Georgina approached.

“Now, let’s get you undressed as well,” she cooed, as Jeremie slid to one side, letting her place both of her hands upon my bare shoulders. “Then we can pamper you and Sissi, and help the both of you relax.”

“Okay…” I nodded. I trusted her since she helped in our rescue.

“Just think, sister dear!” Sister had managed to cheer herself up, as her hands were around her back, unhooking her bra strap, shortly before it was removed and dropped to the floor. “Now I’ll be able to find out if Georgina’s as gentle as soothing as you said she was!”

“She really is,” I smiled a bit, undoing the blanket. “At least my wings didn’t rip my pants off. That would be embarrassing.”

Jeremie, Georgina, and Sister nodded understandingly. They all knew how I felt about my own body, and that something like that would have made me feel even worse than I already was. On top of this, Dr. Martinez’s house felt colder, even without my shirt and bra on, for some reason.

I unbuttoned and unzipped my pants. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it!” Sister grinned, as she stepped out of her underwear, before kneeling down on one of the towel beds Georgina had built. “But you’re among your loving, adoring friends, so you don’t have to worry one bit!”

“That’s what I love so much,” I beamed, feeling my heart flutter with happiness, slightly marred by worry about my vision, but I digress. Sister had become a mystifying butterfly during my coma, and her transformation came to me as a bit of a shock initially. When she came out and said XANA by name, I thought that Jeremie or the others had told her everything about Lyoko. However, as time wore on, I was deeply happy that Sister had become scared straight and sweet.

Jeremie nodded as well, his cheeks slowly heating up, tinted a slight pink. “That’s true. I love ’em, too. They’re the best friends I think I’ve ever had.”

“I couldn’t ask for better,” I agreed, taking my pants off with the underwear. “I think I would have been a loner if it weren’t for my psychic powers in the first place.”

“I’m sure you would have found some friends,” Sister tried to reason, concern taking away a slight portion of her former grin as she pulled out her earrings, and heart-shaped hair pins, “even if you hadn’t met the ones we have now.”

“But you know how the others treated me. They thought I was weird from the word ‘go.’ Believe it or not, Julian Xao passed by in front of me my first day, looked up at me, glaring, then kept on walking. I didn’t even say ‘hi’ to him, and he acted as though he hated me,” I blinked.

Sister’s eyes widened, as her hands moved to her bare waist. “He did?! Well, the nerve of him! He’s a dork, anyway!”

Jeremie was confused, as well. “He acted that way toward you, and you hadn’t even said a word to him? I certainly hope he isn’t psychic as well. Maybe he was just… having a bad day?”

“He’s not psychic. But the bad day, maybe. I was new and everything. Dad took me in, Jim gave me the tour, showed me to my dorm, double occupancy. At first, Valerie was my roommate, but she moved to a single occupancy after the fall holiday. No explanation was given. I asked a couple times before Aelita was materialized, but she never gave a solid answer or she wasn’t in the mood to talk,” I explained, kneeling on my bed of towels.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jeremie remarked, slightly surprised, as he slid over in front of the bathtub, as Georgina walked over to the sink, and began soaking two of the washcloths. “But it might have been something different entirely. I really don’t think it had anything to do with you, Cassidy.”

“I agree,” Sister chimed in, changing her position so she was now sitting on her bed of towels, facing me. “It could be anything, so you shouldn’t assume she was leaving because of you.”

“I just didn’t know what caused the sudden move. Plus it unnerved me being alone for a while. That’s one of the reasons why I was desperate to have Aelita as a roommate, Einstein, when the subject of ‘we need to prepare for her arrival a little more’ was brought up. I was alone,” I blinked.

“I probably should have guessed that, from the way you were acting,” he recalled, running through the memory in his mind. “I was doing my best to materialize her, and I wasn’t sure if I could have gone any faster.”

“Hey, you finally did, Jeremie. And I was happy not to be alone.” I lowered myself down onto the bed of towels.

“And you did a wonderful job, Jeremie, dear,” Sister agreed, before doing the same. “I don’t think there’s anyone who could have done it quite as well as you.”

A grin slowly overtook the lower half of his face, his blush increasing in modesty. “Come on, girls… I only did my best.”

“They don’t call you Einstein for nothing, sweetheart,” Georgina smiled greatly. “I don’t think the scientists at the lab could compete with your caliber.”

His gaze lowered to the carpeted floor, as his hand reached behind his head, giving its back a soft, gentle rub. “Aw, it was nothing…”

“It was not nothing!” I giggled. “You did what that one nuclear engineer told you was ‘in the realm of science fiction!’”

That got him chuckling, as he looked up at me, while Georgina knelt down between me and Sister, and began to soothingly, softly, and thoroughly, wipe our bellies in slow, gentle circles with the soft, warm, wet washcloths. “That was almost perfect! He almost made me worry, when he told me that.”

“Actually, I thought you looked ticked off, both at him, and Mrs. Hertz for calling you a dreamer. You wanted to know if it was possible to materialize somebody, and he dismissed you,” I defended.

“You’re right,” he admitted, his face hardening slightly. “That did bother me. That’s why I became more determined than ever to disprove them both.”

“And now they know that you did the impossible. You nailed it, Jeremie, doing what would stump everyone and more.”

Sister closed her eyes, a proud, confident smile stretching from ear to ear as she let Georgina’s soothing wipes relax her. “And I think that deserves a team bath, too, Einstein, dear! Probably not now, because we have to worry about my dear sister’s sensibilities, but after she’s done, I’ll stay in here, and help Georgina wipe, rub, massage, and even wash you. Trust me, it’ll feel great!”

“Thanks, Sissi,” Jeremie smiled.

The rest of my and Sister’s full-body wipes was silent, as the two of us allowed ourselves to relax, while Georgina soothingly, slowly, softly, and thoroughly gave us an invigorating head-to-toe wipe, running each washcloth across every inch of skin on our respective bodies, at least twice. Sister even telepathically told me how relaxed she was, just from the full-body wipe alone, while I told her that it was only going to get better. She soothingly wiped every inch of both halves of our bodies, before moving onto the full-body rub.

This felt just as relaxing as the wipe, as Georgina slowly ran her left hand across Sister’s front and back, and her right hand across mine, rubbing in slow, gentle circles on our bellies and backs as she passed them. When she changed to massaging, she began with me, focusing her time, and both of her hands, on giving my whole body a soothing, relaxing massage, sending me into incredible feelings of relaxation that I had come to expect from her. Every single knot in my back was soon worked out, in the time span of nearly forty-five minutes, before my legs, arms, shoulders, neck, and even my belly and sides were given soft, gentle rubs as well. Spending an hour on me, she then turned to Sister, giving her the exact same treatment, which I could tell she enjoyed quite a lot, if the look on her face was any indication. She had fewer knots in her back than I did, but she appreciated the invigorating massage all the same.

This time, rather than filling the tub while she was still rubbing Sister and I, Georgina waited until she had finished Sister’s massage, before crawling over and filling the bathtub. Once she had started doing this, before she came back, she, too, began to undress, soon revealing she was wearing a one-piece swimsuit under her clothing, which surprised Jeremie, who wondered if she was planning to go for a swim, at some point. Bubble bath was poured into the soothing warm flow, creating a gigantic mass of suds atop the water, and as she waited for the tub to fill, she crawled back over to Sister and I, and gave the two of us another gentle, soothing, and thorough full-body wipe.

In less than fifteen minutes, the bathtub had been filled halfway with soothing warm water, as Georgina turned off the taps, while Sister and I got to our feet, our bodies dripping wet from the extra wipe. Excited grins soon came to our faces as we saw the bathwater, and took no time at all slowly stepping in, with Georgina getting in on the left, and Sister on the right, before both gestured to me, inviting me to sit in the center, which I happily did.

Georgina had plunged both washcloths into the soothingly warm bathwater, making sure they were thoroughly soaked, before reaching for the bottle of Dove bath soap, placing both washcloths on the edge of the tub, and lathering each one up incredibly well, until the suds that caked each cloth obscured it. Sister jokingly splashed me with the warm water a few times, before Georgina handed her one of the soap-caked washcloths and kept the second, and both slowly extended them toward me. In no time at all, I felt Sister gently and soothingly begin to wash my belly, a warm, comforting smile on her face, while I felt the second washcloth caress my upper back, Georgina applying a gentle amount of pressure as she began to scrub.

I can’t even begin to tell you how soothing, relaxing, rejuvenating, and invigorating this bath was. Getting every single inch of my body soothingly, slowly, softly, and thoroughly washed by Georgina was one thing, but having both Georgina and Sister washing absolutely every inch of my body, each washing one side, was absolutely _heaven_. Sister was very gentle, soft, and thorough, as she sudsed up my belly and sides quite well, before moving up, and giving similar attention to my chest, shoulders, and neck. Georgina worked her magic as usual, soothingly and thoroughly washing my entire back half, lathering it up incredibly well, before tag-teaming with Sister to give similar treatment to my underarms. In about a good half an hour, we had all stood up, so Georgina and Sister could wash the rest of my body, and cake it in a thick layer of suds, like my upper half. Incredibly rejuvenating didn’t even begin to describe the relaxation I felt. If a “team bath”, as Sister called it, felt this good, if she ever got her way with her father when we got back to Kadic, I probably wouldn’t mind sharing a bath with either her, or Yumi, if we could all do this with Georgina. Once we sat down in the water once more, Georgina began washing my wings, giving them the same gentle, soothing, and thorough washing that she and Sister did with the rest of my body, continuing my feelings of relaxation, nearly increasing them greatly. Next was my hair, a task the former whitecoat also took on, combining a wonderful hair wash with a scalp massage, as Sister tended to my face, giving it an even gentler, more soothing scrub than the had the rest of my body.

The entire process took a little over an hour, and soon Georgina and Sister had rinsed my entire body, the soap suds falling from my skin like rain into the bathwater, in a similar manner as what happened the day before, with the showerhead for assistance. And once the two had given every inch of me an invigorating rinse, the shower was turned off, before I carefully traded places with Sister, and the three of us sat back into the water. Georgina rinsed and re-lathered the washcloths in the same manner as before, before handing one to me, and we restarted the entire process for Sister. I remembered how much she had enjoyed the bath her whitecoat had given her, before getting unnerved by the natural earthquake. It was my second time actually washing someone other than myself, considering I helped Mom with my sister before I moved to Kadic, but since I was washing another girl, it soon became like second nature to me. Helping Georgina softly, slowly, soothingly, invigoratingly, and thoroughly wash every inch of Sister’s body, wings, and hair, in the same manner as the two had done to me minutes earlier, the principal’s daughter’s face bore an ear-to-ear grin, barely able to contain the relaxation and rejuvenation she felt. She even complimented me, knowing how well I used to wash my own hair, and realizing I used to give my body a similar treatment. Another hour had passed, during which Jeremie had taken a nap, before every inch of Sister was caked in several inches of suds, and was similarly rinsed off.

After the bath had been completed, Georgina set right to work with drying every inch of my skin and hair. Before I was completely dry, I became aware of a new wet sensation falling down my shoulder. My eyes widened as I tried to find the source.

Sister seemed to realize this, too, a worried look overtaking her face as she stood in the bathwater, every inch of her body dripping wet, as she watched Georgina dry me. “Ooh… we forgot about the surgical site.”

Georgina smiled softly, finding some gauze and tape in the medical cabinet. “It's okay, Cassidy. I can fix this in a jiffy.”

The former scientist approached me from the side, gently patting the wound with the gauze, making sure it was not only dry, but that the bleeding had stopped for the moment, no matter how brief, before giving it a gentle amount of force, and taping it to my neck, with enough surgical tape to hold it in place, but not aggravate it, or me.

“There you are, sweetheart.” She gave me a soft kiss on my temple, once she had finished.

A warm smile overtook the lower half of my face, a feeling of being loved welling up within me. “Thanks, Georgina.”

“No problem, Cassidy. It will take a few days for that to heal. But keeping it clean is a good thing,” she grinned.

“Now, we might need to wake Jeremie up,” I giggled, deciding to switch tactics. “Hey, Einstein! XANA has returned and is activating a tower right now! We need to get back to France fast!”

As if someone had flipped a switch, Einstein sprang awake, his eyes wide open, and a look of fear overtook his face.

“Quick! Let’s hop in Dr. Martinez’s van!” He commanded. “We can’t let XANA launch his attack! If we try, we can make it to the docks by sundown!”

In a few seconds, however, his eyes returned to their normal height, a blush slowly filled his cheeks, and he looked up at me, glaring as he removed his glasses to rub his eyes.

“Cassidy! Couldn’t you have come up with a better joke?!”

“Hey, you didn't want me to do anything involving Aelita and Odd getting married anymore. You didn't say anything about faking a XANA attack,” I grinned, shooting the proverbial ball into his court.

“Still,” Einstein answered, replacing his spectacles and slowly getting to his feet, “you really had me going, there. I know we only weakened XANA, but I would hope he’d at least have the decency to wait until we got back to France, before activating a tower again.”

“I know, but what could I do to wake you up? Knock knock jokes? Too simple, and Odd could do better. A joke from Dexter’s Lab? You might get it, but then you would probably yell at me for the appropriateness. Faking a marriage proposal? You told Ulrich and me not to do that anymore!” I blinked.

“Then _maybe_ you should try waking me like a normal person would!” His eyebrows slanted downward, as he pushed his glasses past the bridge of his nose. “And that doesn’t include tickling!”

I pouted. “But where's the fun in being normal? I think you missed the memo that like _mi novio_ , I'm not normal.”

Jeremie raised his hands into the air. “Well, you know what they say; the longer you hang out with someone, the more you turn _into_ them!”

That was when Sister’s eyes narrowed, her lips curving upward into a sly grin, as she folded her soaking wet arms. “Next time, dear sister, maybe we should take his clothes off, and give _him_ a full-body wipe! I do plan to help Georgina give him a lovely, invigorating bath, after all.”

“WHAT?!” Jeremie whirled to face Sister, flabbergasted. “I thought we were gonna wait until Cassidy was dressed and left! Her sensi-whatever!”

“Oh, you don't have to worry about that today, Jeremie, darling,” she giggled.

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?! Cassidy’s never liked seeing me, Odd, Ulrich, or any boy naked!”

“Simple: She’s gonna take her blanket, underwear, and pants, dress herself, and leave. Right, dear sister?”

I nodded, already proceeding with Stage 2 of Sister's plan. I had pulled on my underwear while Einstein bickered with her, and was now starting to step into the left leg of my pants.

Once I had pulled them on, Georgina walked over to Sister, helping her out of the tub and onto a bathmat, where she lightly dried her body, seeing it pointless to dry her skin completely if she was going to get wet again, once the two reentered the bathwater with Jeremie. With my blanket wrapped around my torso like a towel, I soon left the bathroom, hearing the sounds of Sister beginning to coo to Jeremie, assuming she was about to help Georgina undress him, as the door closed behind me.

“You look happy for a change, Cat Girl! Georgina must’ve had the magic touch,” Odd quipped, putting his fork beside his plate, as I walked back into the living room. “’Hungry? Dr. Martinez has made steak and baked potatoes for everyone. How would you like your steak?”

“Well done,” I smiled.

“I’ll have it done in fifteen minutes,” I heard Dr. Martinez call from the kitchen, amid the sounds of sizzling steak. “Would you like your baked potato now, or do you wanna wait until your steak is ready?”

“I'll wait,” I smiled.

Dr. Martinez nodded, as she turned her attention back to the pan in front of her, on the stove. Odd eagerly patted the spot on the couch next to him, hoping I would sit down.

Sure enough, I took the seat he tapped. “I wasn’t in there for _that_ long, was I?”

“We all got hungry,” Aelita admitted sheepishly.

“It actually wasn’t just Odd this time,” Ulrich quipped, a sly grin on his face.

“I understand, both of you. I’m glad that you got a chance to eat. It wouldn’t be fair to you all, or even me, that you have to starve while waiting for Sister, Einstein, and me,” I pointed out.

“We would’ve made sure Odd didn’t eat all the food,” Yumi reassured me with a chuckle.

“I know, but still. If y’all need to eat, do it! Don’t wait for me,” I argued, a grin growing on my face.

A Cheshire Cat-style smile overtook the lower half of _mi novio’s_ face, as if my approval was all he needed. “Faaaan-tastic!”

“Besides, we all need to eat when our stomachs are empty.”

Yumi nodded, understandingly. “That’s true. And it’s not like we all could have joined you, Sissi, and Jeremie for a bath, like in Japan, so we all could eat at the same time.”

“Yep. So anyway, I’m sure that we’ll make it through to Baltimore,” I smiled. “I can’t wait to see everyone at Kadic again.”

Hunter grinned, swallowing the piece of steak in his mouth. “And I can’t wait to start school, there. It looks like such an amazing boarding school, even though a few of the teachers kinda scare me a bit.”

“It is a nice school. And don’t worry about the teachers. All of them are nice as soon as you get to know them. Jim may talk tough, but he can be very gentle when need be, for example,” I giggled.

I could hear him thinking about moments that the monster had showed him, particularly our camp-out at the lake, before he replied. “That’s true. I’ve seen Jim’s good side, but it seems like he shows his tough, authoritative side more often than not.”

“Again, he’s nice once you get to know him. I still don’t know how I managed to get him to divulge his past when I was the only one around him, when he normally keeps that stuff locked up tight,” I noted.

“We always knew you were special, Cat Girl!” Odd offered his explanation, before turning his gaze on the black-haired boy. “Don’t worry, Hunter; you’ll fit in just fine! You’ll have us, your best friends in the whole entire world, to hang out with!”

“You may even get straight-A’s like Jeremie and Aelita,” Yumi encouraged.

“I still didn’t want to outdo him,” Aelita smiled modestly.

“I don’t think it’s a race, Princess.” Ulrich held out his arms, his palms facing the ceiling. “You’re both the smartest students in the whole school, anyway.”

“That’s true,” I smiled. “I only got the straight-A bug for a semester without even realizing that my powers were being the cheaters.”

“Huh?!” Odd whirled his head around to look at me, a surprised look overtaking his face. “Your powers were cheating?”

“Hey, I told you that they turned off during a card game. I didn’t know that they were helping my academics until the time the wolves attacked—sorry, Aelita,” I blinked, “—so I tried to back off as much as possible until I was in a dead-heat tie with Yumi.”

Aelita rubbed the back of her head, looking a bit sheepish. “T-that’s okay, Cassidy. I didn’t realize you were trying to tone your powers down. You really didn’t need to do that. I’m sure nobody would’ve thought anything different of you, if you were as smart as Jeremie.”

“But I heard the collective groans and gasps Jeremie and I got from the other students when we finished a test at the same time. At first the praise was taking over me, but after Peter Duncan’s attack, it started to affect me a little.” I blushed, ducking my head a bit.

“They _always_ did that whenever you and Einstein finished a test because you two ran through it like that,” Ulrich interjected. “You shouldn’t let it get to you. If anything, they’re just jealous of you two.”

“We all studied together, after all,” Yumi reminded me. “They probably didn’t like it because they didn’t, or they forgot to. That’s not your fault, Cassidy.”

“I guess being third-in-command in memory wasn’t such a bad thing,” I blinked, looking up at them.

“Of _course_ not!” Kaitlyn agreed, smiling reassuringly at me. “They want smart kids at Kadic, don’t they? If anything, depending on how good Hunter is at his studies, you might have even _more_ competition.”

Hunter rubbed the back of his head. “Well, I don’t know if I’ll be _that_ good… but I am pretty good at math, and science is a good topic for me, at least.”

“That wouldn’t be too bad,” I smiled gently.

“And I’m sure any of us will be able to help you, if you get stuck on something,” Patrick reassured him. “Jeremie’s helped me with a few subjects.”

“They’ve helped me, too.” William chimed in, grinning. “I never used to study, but Cass made sure I did, and now a lot of us like to study together! You could study with us, too Hunter!”

“Even if you studied the wrong subject?” Yumi quipped, chuckling.

William froze, stuttering like crazy. “Well… uh, yeah—uh… um… yeah?”

The rest of us burst out laughing at that one. Yumi had definitely gotten him good.

“I might not have been there, but that was funny when I wrote it down in my vision journal,” I giggled.

It took _mi ex novio_ a few moments, but he soon remembered what exactly I meant, thanks to the monster, even if he dismissed it as a weird dream. While he was having that math test with Yumi, which he thought he had studied for the night before, only mistaking it for American History, I was running to the factory with Odd and Aelita, determined to help my former first roommate find a trace of her father on Lyoko.

While he recalled this event, Max and Ella’s mother approached me, bearing a plate that held the steak she had finished cooking for me, along with a baked potato.

“Here you go, Cassidy. Do you want butter and cheese with your baked potato?” Dr. Martinez asked.

I nodded, mouth watering, a smile still plastered over my face. “Yes, please. I love cheese and butter on my baked potato.”

Odd grinned at me. “You, too, Cat Girl? I thought I was the only one who knew the _right_ way to eat a baked potato!”

“I always loved it that way. You forget that I came from here. And anytime my dad could, he would always grill out,” I nodded. “Mom would microwave the baked potatoes. Then we would customize them.”

That even got Hunter grinning. “Wow… that’s incredible! I’ll sometimes have butter on mine, but that sounds like it tastes even better!”

“Especially if there’s bacon on it, too,” I giggled, stabbing my steak and cutting it into small pieces.

“That does sound incredible,” Yumi agreed, as she picked up another piece of steak on her fork. “Maybe we should have a cook-out at one of our stops, on our way to Baltimore.”

“Albion, Illinois, it is,” I grinned. “Dad loves cooking out, even in cold and snow.”

“Even in the snow?” Hunter blinked, surprised. “My father used to cook-out on occasion, but only in the spring and summer. He had other things to do in the wintertime.”

“Well, he had some experience, I have to admit,” I nodded, soon finished with mutilating my meat and eating the pieces slowly.

“Experience?” Aelita asked for clarification.

“He did it for years. He has tough skin,” I remarked. “But I love him. He’s always loved me just as much as my sister.”

“He sounds like a wonderful father,” Aelita commented with a smile.

“He does,” Yumi added.

After a while, nearly two hours in fact, the bathroom door opened once more, and Georgina, along with a freshly-washed Sister and Jeremie, who looked quite relaxed, if the dreamy smile on his face was any indication, emerged and filed into the living room.

“Cassidy… you were right. Georgina does have the magic touch,” he exhumed, feeling as if he was floating on air. “I can see why you weren’t able to return to your natural state to enact Plan 120…”

My head immediately drooped when I heard that. I guess Einstein was too out of it himself to realize how much that hurt me, even if he didn’t realize it. Yes, I agree; Georgina knew how to give anyone the most soothing, relaxing, invigorating, and rejuvenating head-to-toe, full-body wipes, rubs, massages, and washes, where the bath wasn’t over until every inch of your body, wings, and hair, were buried under at least two inches of soap suds. Everyone who had let Georgina give them any of those felt the same way. To top it off, she was such a wonderful, caring, loving person, especially to both Hunter and me, that if we ended up parting ways, before we got back to Kadic, I would be incredibly disappointed and heartbroken.

But despite all of this, the thought of the state the former whitecoat was capable of putting anyone she wiped, rubbed, massaged, and bathed into still liked to eat away at me, and was something I tried my hardest to block out. Even though Yumi and Aelita kept telling me to forgive myself, I still felt as though I could have prevented the whitecoats from giving us our wings, our telepathy, and whatever else they did to us, along with giving me a strand of Aelita’s DNA, if I hadn’t been emotionally wrecked by Reilly’s sudden attack, if I hadn’t asked Georgina for another bath, if I hadn’t been so high on those feelings of relaxation, that I could have done something…

And it wasn’t long before Yumi noticed my emotional state, since the look of shame on my face was a dead-ringer to everyone nearby, and she soon got up, and walked over in front of me.

“Cassidy,” she reminded me, in a calm yet firm voice, “haven’t all of us told you that you need to forgive yourself?”

“But, Yumi… I should have listened to William! Instead, my head was on Cloud Nine! I screwed everything up at that point. I know you want me to forgive myself, but I had the plan, I should have acted serious and taken control for you guys after the bath, but I _failed you all_.” My brows slanted as I challenged my geisha friend.

“Haven’t we told you about that, as well?” Her voice became firmer, yet remained gentle and calm. “Aelita has told you, too. Do you think any of us knew the whitecoats were gonna storm us like that? Did you think any of us knew Reilly was going to tackle you to the floor, after you taunted him like that? Sometimes you don’t have all the answers, Cassidy! You can’t keep blaming every single thing that happens to us on yourself!”

“I know that I don’t have all the answers, Yumi. But—”

“We don’t expect you to, Cat Girl.” Odd could sense the tension in the room heightening, and tried to intervene. “Just be yourself, and don’t try to be in control of everything, okay? We’re a team. If one of us fails, it’s not the end of the world.”

Then his lips slowly curved upward. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Reilly had frogs’ legs! Did you see the way he moved around?”

And that set Yumi and I both off. Our heads were flung backward as we erupted in laughter. If it was one thing we could all count on, it was _mi novio_ knowing exactly how to lighten the mood, when things got crazy.

Once we had all calmed down, we returned to the planning that we had started earlier that day, marking out every single place we wanted to hit, on our way to Baltimore. Along with the ones we had already plotted, we made sure to choose enough destinations to fill out the month. Odd still wanted to see the Arch, so we decided that he could still see it on his own, considering that several of us had a fear of heights. Hunter and I would be glad to see our respective families once more, while I was sure the others would enjoy most of what the United States had to offer, just as much as I did.

But one thing was for sure; the next month was definitely going to be a blast.


	14. One More Day at Dr. Martinez's Place

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do own our own OC’s and the plot.**

It was the next morning. After the interesting day of plotting, and finding out most of my friends had suddenly become telepaths, most of us slept soundly that night. Of course, I was getting used to sleeping topless, which was not something I normally did, but it was better than sleeping with a blanket tightly wrapped around my belly and chest. However, when I finally did get to sleep, I began to have a crazy dream, involving myself and the others being chased by whitecoats, but our wings were still growing, and thus couldn’t carry us. Reilly, of all people, had just tackled me, and was seconds from stinging my neck, when...

“Cat Girl…” Odd moaned, pulling on my bare arm. “Wake up…”

Unfortunately, he just _had_ to pull on _that_ arm _,_ which immediately aggravated the slit that Dr. Martinez made, when she pulled that microchip out of my neck. “Ow…! Odd Thomas Della Robbia! That hurt…”

“Sorry, Cassidy, you were having a bit of a nightmare,” he admitted, before his eyes widened. “And how do you know my middle name? I never told it to you.”

“Yumi once told me while Jeremie was making the program to weaken XANA. I wanted to know about how you _almost sacrificed my Hippity_ ,” I growled, clenching a fist while wrapping my other hand protectively around the one Sam gave me.

Odd raised both of his hands up to chest level. “Hey, how was I supposed to know the monster wasn’t some sort of mysterious entity that required sacrifices, in order to stop its plans for global conquest?!”

“You knew that my Hippity was super special to me, yet you wanted to do away with him! How would you have liked it if the roles were reversed and I tried to drop one of your favorite, special things into something I didn’t know of?!”

His eyebrows slanted, slightly. “That’s different! Since you’re the psychic, you would know if a gigantic crazy monster is gonna swallow up the whole entire world, and you would also know whether or not you’d have to give it something to make it go away!”

“Still, Odd. I was shocked at your actions,” I glared at him.

“It seemed to want you, so I thought that I could give it something that belonged to you, to make it leave you alone!” He attempted to explain, but I saw right through his flawed logic. “You should be happy it spit it back at me!”

“I am, but—you have to be the craziest boyfriend I ever had, and I only dated two guys!” I sighed.

His glare slowly morphed into a malevolent grin, as he folded his arms. “Maybe that’s why you love me so much, huh?”

“Odd… don’t you look at me that way…” I had a pretty good picture of what he was going to do next.

He slowly leaned closer to me, his grin going full-on Cheshire Cat. “Okay, then how about this?”

Before I could even react, his hands went straight to my bare sides, gently tickling me for a few seconds, his face unchanging, following this by leaning forward, and planting a kiss directly onto my lips.

“O-Odd…” I panted.

“What’s wrong, Cat Girl?” He pulled away, his voice sounding like he could start chuckling at any moment. “Had enough?”

I nodded. “Y-yes…”

“Okay.” Like nothing at all, he was soon back on his butt, sitting next to me on the bed. “Now, why don’t you tell me about that nightmare you were having?”

“We—we were…chased…by whitecoats… A-and R-Reilly…” I clenched my teeth, not wanting to continue. Jeremie was right about my threshold of pain, even if I was too stubborn to believe it.

I could hear Odd working it out in his mind, taking a few moments to put the pieces together. His face soon softened into one of concern, as he slid himself over to another portion of my bed, and began softly running his hands across my wings, gently stroking the feathers in a soothing way.

“There, there, Cat Girl,” he cooed as he did this. “It was only a dream. Now, what did Reilly try to do to you?”

“H-he—he… he looked like he wanted to m-murder me…” I whimpered. “H-he brought a s-syringe u-up…”

“Of course he’d use a syringe,” _mi novio_ continued, trying to make sure he could make sense of it all. “With how many times they stung you on the neck? But you stopped him, didn’t you? You brought your arm up, grabbed his hand, twisted his arm backward, and—”

I shook my head. “I-I was t-tackled t-to the ground…”

“Oh.” I could tell he didn’t expect that. “Maybe someone was gonna come save you? Like me?”

“E-everyone was chased… I didn’t kn-know…” I felt tears well up in my eyes as I continued, soon losing the strength to hold them back.

In response, Odd gave my wings an even more soothing, relaxing rub, hoping to calm me down further.

“It’s okay, Cat Girl…” His voice lowered to a soothing level as he cooed to me. “Don’t cry… big bad Reilly is long gone, now. We’re gonna get far away from him and Mandy, you’ll see. We’ll be all the way on the East Coast, before they even know we passed Illinois!”

That definitely helped me calm down. I could feel myself relaxing, both from his words, and his gentle touch. “Thanks, Odd.”

“Don’t worry about it, Cat Girl!” he adopted a proud air. “I’m your knight in shining armor, after all! And I told you I’d make sure every single one of your dreams was sweet!”

“I guess it slipped through the cracks this time,” I shrugged.

“Well… maybe I just had my back turned, and it snuck behind me! But it’s not gonna happen a second time!”

“It’s okay, Odd.” I brought my lips to his forehead, kissing him. “You are so sweet to me…”

He chuckled, grinning as I did this. “They don’t call me Odd the Sweet and Magnificent for nothing!”

“I’d take Odd the Great, the Brave, the Magnificent better. It may be too long to put on a cape or even on a chest emblem, but it feels nice,” I smiled.

He wrapped his arms around me, and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. “I like it, too. It’s me, you know? It really fits.”

“And it really does,” I beamed, slightly buzzed from the kiss. He had that effect on me, and I believed I realized this when I did the same to him as he became too nervous to show his film to his parents. At first, I had other fish frying, so I had to push that sensation to the back burner.

“Now, why don’t we try to go back to sleep?” he suggested next, slowly laying down on my bed next to me, the way he had been, before he woke me up.

I nodded, slowly reclining myself onto my back once more, before closing my eyes, and allowing myself to nod off.

\---

“You had a nightmare last night?” Jeremie asked me the next morning.

“It was a very scary one, Einstein,” I deadpanned, mental shield raised. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

Aelita raised an eyebrow, seeming almost as if she was trying to make me laugh. “Did you dream about Jim?”

I chuckled. “That would slide things more into dream territory, Aelita… But no. Jimbo wasn’t even in it.”

Her eyebrow lowered. “If you don’t feel comfortable talking about your nightmare, Cassidy, that’s okay. I’m sure you and Odd dealt with it well, last night.”

“You loved to divulge yours, Aelita, sweetheart,” Sister interjected. “But you’re right. It’s not as if some soul-sucking monster would come back and try to put my dear sister in a coma again, right?”

“It’s not even that level,” I shook my head, pulling my knees to my chest. “It’s not even connected to the vision I had last night.”

“Well, whatever it is,” Hunter jumped in, his face bearing a look of concern, “it sounds really terrible. Maybe it’s better off that we _don’t_ know.”

I nodded. “Thank you, Hunter.”

“He’s right,” Aelita agreed. “Even though I did talk about most of my dreams, I don’t think any of them came anywhere close to the one Cassidy had last night. Plus, she might not feel comfortable talking about them, as much as I do.”

“ _Tienes razón_ , _Aelita._ I don’t feel even close to being comfortable,” I muttered.

Odd walked up to me, and put his arm around my bare shoulders. “Let’s not worry about that now. How about we get some breakfast, first? I’m starving!”

Yumi nodded, chuckling. “That will help.”

“A hot meal always helped me calm down,” Patrick agreed.

All of us in agreement, we made our way to the kitchen, where Dr. Martinez was already hard at work, making something so chocolaty on the stove.

“Morning, everyone,” she greeted. “Did you sleep well?”

“Most of us did, yes,” Yumi commented with a smile, “but everything’s cool.”

Aelita nodded. “She’s right.”

“‘Most of you?’ Did something go wrong? Do I need to do a headcount?” she asked.

“No, Dr. Martinez,” William reassured. “All twelve of us are here.”

And sure enough, each one of us, even Kiwi, chimed in, in sequence, letting Max and Ella’s mother know that William was right.

“That’s good. But if it wasn’t that, what happened?”

“Oh, one of us just had a nightmare, that’s all,” Odd explained, succinctly, with his arm around me, “but it’s cool.”

“Well, that’s alright. Everything’s almost ready,” she grinned.

“Faaaan-tastic!” my wildcard exclaimed, as he walked up next to Dr. Martinez, looking at the pancake in the pan she was holding. “Ooh! Chocolate chips! Cat Girl will love it!”

“I loved Rosa’s, so here may be no different,” I giggled.

“Dr. Martinez is a good cook,” Yumi complimented her. “Her breakfast from yesterday tasted good, too.”

“No doubt about it!” Ulrich grinned, taking a seat beside his _novia_.

“After breakfast, I’m going to check the gauze on Cassidy’s neck, then help her with a temporary shirt she can wear until she gets a new one,” Dr. Martinez smiled. “I don’t think she would love it if she had to wear the blanket all the way to Baltimore.”

“We could just hit a clothing store, first,” Sister suggested, “after we leave here, couldn’t we?”

“That could work. We have a Walmart,” Max noted. “Maybe we can find something there.”

“Great!” Sister seemed a bit excited by that, as she walked over to me. “I’ll help you shop for some new clothes, dear sister! That way, you’ll look incredible, when we reach Baltimore!”

“Maybe something to match her hair colors,” Kaitlyn smiled. “We can check out the options there.”

“Nothing with uniform-like vertical, diagonal, or horizontal stripes, please,” I grimaced. “I don’t think I’ll look good in those.”

“Of course not!” Sister agreed, raising an eyebrow. “That’d be far too tacky, anyway. What you need is the perfect mix of brown and pink!”

“Are you kidding? A deep red might look better,” Kaitlyn countered.

“Trust me, Kaitlyn sweetheart,” Sister retorted, placing her hand on her chest, and closing her eyes with a proud smile on her face, “I have an eye for fashion, and brown would naturally complement pink in this situation. After all, look how wonderfully the extra strand of pink works with my dear sister’s natural brown hair!”

“Uh…” I found myself at a slight loss for words; when was the last time Sister was this passionate about fashion, that she’d get into an argument with Kaitlyn? I wasn’t expecting this at all.

That was when Yumi jumped in.

“Sissi, Kaitlyn, shouldn’t we leave this up to Cassidy?” she walked in-between the two, glancing at Sister, then at Kaitlyn. “It is her we’re buying this for, after all.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Sister exclaimed.

“And maybe she’s not ready for an entire wardrobe change just yet,” my geisha friend continued. “I think you should talk to her first, before you start wanting to buy extra clothing.”

“Plus, it’s just a shirt,” I muttered. “Not a fancy party dress.”

Sister turned to look at me, an apologetic look gracing her features. “I thought you’d want something more than just a My Little Pony t-shirt,” she explained.

“I understand, Sister. Really, I do, but I’m just wanting to replace my shirt that my wings destroyed,” I blinked, suddenly getting an idea. “Maybe when we get back to Kadic, you can take me clothes shopping any day of the week.”

That lifted her spirits. Her lips curved upward, and she clasped her hands together, interweaving her fingers. “Consider it a date! I’ll make sure you turn the heads of all the boys at Kadic!”

“Yeah, sorry we got a bit carried away there, Cassidy,” Kaitlyn apologized, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “We thought you wanted a second opinion.”

“It’s okay, and I wouldn’t like all the attention, Sister. I mean, I have Odd…” I grimaced, the idea of having all of the boys after me making me feel queasy.

“Of course you do!” she grinned. “And imagine what he’d think, if he saw you in a wonderful new outfit!”

And that didn’t help me either. The feelings welling up inside me, just from not only other boys’ thoughts, but also Odd’s, eventually came to a head, and I lost consciousness, falling out of the chair.

\---

“Cassidy?” I heard Jeremie call my name, after what seemed like a long period of time.

My eyes slowly opened at the sound of his voice. “Uh…”

“You okay, Cat Girl?” Odd hovered over me, worry painting his face as he waved a magazine over me. “Sissi wasn’t even complimenting you, and you went out faster than Nicholas’ brain during a physics test!”

“I guess I was overwhelmed by the thought of getting boys’ attention,” I blushed.

Odd offered me his hand. “Well, don’t worry about that. Because you’ve always got my attention, and that counts higher than the rest of them!”

Taking _mi novio’s_ hand, I heard Sister behind me, sounding worried. “Oh, I’m sorry, dear sister! I guess I really got caught up in the moment, and thought I was helping you feel better! I didn’t know you were gonna faint like that!”

“It’s okay. I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t want to end up having some boy stealing me away from Odd because of my looks. Odd, he helped me back on my feet when William used my nickname against me. He even soothed the trauma of him kissing me in the elevator,” I blinked. “He’s special.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Sister replied, slowly starting to cheer up, both from the look on her face, and the tone of her voice. “Odd is a very special boy, just like you said.”

“Exactly. He made me laugh on his and my first day at Kadic,” I giggled.

“I remember that day well!” Sister smiled, while in my mind, I could see her envisioning the hairstyle my wildcard had, before his first trip to Lyoko.

She then turned her gaze toward Samurai. “And I’m so glad you don’t think of me as a braindead leech anymore, Ulrich, dear!”

“Y-yeah,” Ulrich averted his gaze from my dear Sister, rubbing the back of his head out of embarrassment, with his cheeks heating up to match. “I guess I, uh… didn’t… uh… know you as well as I… uh… do now.”

“It’s okay, Ulrich,” I smiled. “Just like Sister, you are redeemed, as well.”

Aelita found my grin contagious. “I don’t think I could have said that any better, myself.”

“I just hope to redeem myself one day,” I muttered to myself.

As if she had borrowed Kiwi’s hearing for a few seconds, one of Sister’s eyes widened in surprise, as she turned to look at me. “Huh? ‘Redeem yourself’? Whatever for, dear sister?”

“I attempted my life, tricked you, almost hurt you! The fun-loving side of myself hates that I tried to do that,” I almost wailed.

Yumi folded her arms, giving me the sort of look a mother would give her child, when they did something they knew was wrong. “Cassidy, what have we told you about forgiving yourself? We shouldn’t have to keep reminding you!”

“Besides, what are you even talking about?” Hunter folded his arms, but more out of confusion, rather than anger.

“I almost threw myself into the Digital Sea, Hunter,” I confessed.

“Didn’t we forgive you for that, already?” Yumi’s voice calmed down, turning more soothing in an attempt to console me. “You really shouldn’t let things like that bother you. You weren’t thinking clearly when you nearly did that!”

Sister walked up to me, and gave my bare shoulders a soft, soothing, comforting rub. “You really shouldn’t get all wound up over your mistakes, Sister dear. We’ve all truly forgiven you for every mistake you think you’ve made, and even though Hunter and Sam never saw what had happened, I’m sure they’d forgive you, too, if they had!”

Suddenly, it was as if a switch had been flipped within my brain, as my feelings of negativity disappeared in a flash, replaced with soothing, calming feelings, as if Sister was directly caressing my soul. My face slowly softened in reply, and a smile slowly began to bloom on the lower half of my face. “You’re right, Sister. That was pretty stupid of me for thinking that way.”

Yumi blinked, amazed at how quickly I had changed my tune. “That was fast. What made you change your mind all of a sudden?”

I tried not to shrug, still smiling. “I don’t know! Sister just rubbed my shoulders, and all of a sudden, I felt better about that day.”

Sister’s eyes widened, as she pulled her hands away from me, and gazed at them, a look of pure disbelief overtaking her face. “Huh?! There’s no way I could’ve—”

She immediately pressed her hands against her chest. “That couldn’t have been _me_ , could it?!”

“It might have, but I feel so much happier. My mind’s been carrying that thing over myself for a month,” I giggled.

Nearby, I could hear Jeremie’s mind going into high gear, the blond genius placing his hand over his mouth, trying to figure out the best way to explain what had just happened. It was then that he got an idea.

“Sissi,” he raised his right index finger into the air, as if he was hoping a teacher would call on him for an answer, while he glanced over at her. “Come over here for a second.”

She curiously approached, as he continued. “I’m going to think about a terrible mistake I made, and let the guilt consume me. I want you to place your hand on any part of me—arms, shoulders, hands, even sides, just not… anywhere below there—and if I’m right, all the guilt within me will mysteriously disappear.”

“Don’t hurt yourself, Jeremie, dear,” Sister warned him, getting concerned just by his plan alone. She soon interwove her fingers together, waiting patiently for him to be ready.

My eyes widened as I listened to the thought Jeremie immediately brought to the front of his mind’s eye; it was the day he materialized Aelita for the first time, and how he had accidentally grabbed the wrong CD, launching Odd’s homemade music video for his song, “Break Break Break Dance”, instead of “Code: Earth”. He closed his eyes as his curious look faded into one of guilt, allowing himself to wallow in the feelings he had that day, of the terrible mistake he made. It almost cultivated concern within me, when I noticed how it was making him feel.

“Okay, Sissi.” His voice had lowered to match the feelings he gave himself. “You can touch me, now.”

Sister wasted no time reaching out, gently placing the palm of her hand atop Einstein’s shoulder, staring at him curiously to see if anything would happen.

Sure enough, it did; Jeremie felt a mysterious force well up within him, destroying his self-inflicted guilt like Ulrich slicing through a few Bloks on a mission to Lyoko. His own eyes widened at the feelings this gave him, his guilt-ridden frown slowly reversing, as happiness and excitement filled him.

“Sissi…!” He was excited, amazed, and dumbfounded, all at the same time. “You’re the greatest!”

She pulled her hands away from the blond genius, giving them another flabbergasted once-over. “But how did—?! I’m… have I…?!”

“I’ve always told you, Sissi, that you’d make an excellent nurse,” Ulrich smiled.

“Um—uh… well, uh… duh—duh…” She now found herself at a loss for words; if she had been me, she probably would have fainted on the spot. “Ummm… uh… t-thanks, I… guess…?”

Sensing the potential for my sister to have an overload, Jeb stepped in. “Okay, okay, let’s calm down and give her some room. We don’t want her to have too much excitement, just in case.”

“I’m proud of her, Jeb,” I giggled once more, moving out of the way.

“I think it’s safe to say we all are,” Jeb agreed. “Those scientists must have done quite a few things to the twelve of you, before your out-of-body experiences began. In any event, I think we’ve got a healer on our hands.”

Sister stared, wide-eyed, at Max and Ari’s father. “But… but… why me?! What else did they do to me?!”

“Telepathy, for one thing,” Aelita pointed out. “I know that most of us have it, but you do, too…”

It was if she was seconds from becoming a broken record. “But… but… but… but…”

“I’m not ashamed of my gifts, Sister,” I smiled, feeling on top of the world. “Neither should you.”

Before another round of “buts” were let loose, Jeb approached Sister, giving her a soft, gentle back rub, caressing in-between her wings. “Don’t worry, Sissi. It’s not the end of the world if you find you’ve got powers. Look at Cassidy. Like she said, she’s had powers like these for a long time, and she’s certainly not ashamed of them.”

“At first I was ashamed of mind-reading, but that faded with time,” I blinked, still feeling a great flame within my heart that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

“I’m sure they’ll take some getting used to,” Jeb continued, and I could tell he was using my earlier experience with _mi novio_ as an example, “but with time, I’m sure they’ll become like second nature to you, like you’ve had them all along. You can use them for good, or for bad. It’s purely up to you.”

Sister closed her eyes, taking a deep, cleansing breath before reopening them again. “M-maybe you’re right, Jeb. I-I’ve helped my dear sister and Jeremie so far… maybe I can be helpful to others, as well…?”

“Yes, Sister,” I smiled. “You got rid of the anvil over my own psyche. I swear, I was having a hard time getting rid of it on my own.”

“At least we found one way that helped you,” Yumi admitted, thinking about the pep talk she gave me, back in the School. “But if it was still bugging you, Aelita and I could have tried to help.”

“I guess I was afraid of getting slapped again,” I blushed.

Odd was slightly surprised by the memory of Yumi’s tactic. “You’ve never used your hands to talk things out, Yumi!”

“You remember, Odd!” she interjected. “She was starting to get frantic, so I had to stop her, somehow! But I probably should have come up with a better way to do it.”

Hunter shrugged, something I wished I could still do, as he extended his arms outward, perpendicular to his sides. “Well, I mean… it looked like it worked… even though I thought you were usually more diplomatic than that?”

“I was acting like a maniac,” I lowered my head slightly, but kept my sun-shining smile.

“But it’s all out of the way, now,” Aelita soothed, smiling at Yumi, Sister, Hunter, Odd, and I. “And with Sissi having healing powers now, you don’t have to worry about feeling terrible ever again, Cassidy. None of us do.”

“I feel so much better. The weight on my psyche is gone, and I don’t feel like I hurt anyone.” I galloped laps around _mi novio_ and Jeremie.

“That’s great!” Jeremie grinned, trying to avoid watching me, so he didn’t get dizzy. “I just hope you don’t ever get into a position where you’ll make yourself feel terrible like that, ever again.”

“Oh, I hope not, either, Einstein! That was bad… I couldn’t feel my Pinkie Pie side of my personality anymore because of that massive boulder in my way,” I giggled.

Confusion overtook Aelita’s face as she raised an eyebrow. “Who’s Pinkie Pie?”

Stopping in my tracks, I smiled. “Hold that thought.” I rushed over to my pony plush pile, and scooped up a pink pony with a darker pink mane and tail with three balloons on her flanks as a cutie mark. “This is Pinkie Pie!”

Aelita’s eyes lit up like a little girl when she beheld the pony. “Wow! So that’s who you were talking about, that day in gym class!”

“I watched the fourth episode the night before,” I admitted. “I guess I ended up slightly out of it to the point where Applejack’s line got into my brain.” With another hand, I brought up an orange pony with a light blond mane and tail tied off at the ends with three apples on her flank wearing a Stetson.

Even Yumi grinned when she saw Applejack. “She’s cute!”

“I still can’t believe that I got you confused, Aelita.”

“It’s…” she hesitated a bit, almost as if she had to think of what she wanted to say, next. “It’s no problem. It’s been a while since you last showed it to me, and with everything else, I might have forgotten.”

“It’s okay, Aelita. I’m just glad that we are soon to be at Kadic,” I grinned.

Jeremie nodded. “Once we reach Baltimore, Maryland, we shouldn’t have to worry about anything else, as we sail back to France.”

“That’s good, Jeremie. I can’t wait to see Hiroki again,” Yumi grinned.

“And after this crazy adventure,” Hunter added, slowly beginning to smile, “I can’t wait to see my aunt and uncle again, so they can enroll me into Kadic. It’s gonna be so cool, going to the same school as you guys!”

“Yeah, it will,” I beamed. “We have to show you around.”

“Yes, we certainly will!” Sister turned a proud grin on Hunter. “And we’ll make sure that your first day at Kadic Academy will be one to remember! I’ll personally see to that, especially if I can get my father to listen to me!”

“You have a persuasive voice,” Patrick smiled.

She closed her eyes, not losing her grin. “Why thank you, Patrick dear! But even if I convince the principal, my father, that superheroes like us need a bit of on-demand spa time, there’s someone in this room who I might have to pay some personal attention to, to make sure they take advantage of it!”

“Who would that be?” Aelita asked.

She extended her hand in Hunter’s direction, causing the black-haired boy to grimace, and I could tell it confirmed his fears. “Why, Hunter dear, of course! My dear sister told me all about it! If we get a whirlpool bath added to Lyoko HQ, I can tell you for a fact that he will never use it! So I’m going to make sure he does, by sharing mine with him, every morning!”

Hunter’s eyes widened, and it reminded me of a similar situation, back at the School; this made perfect sense, as this was where I told Sister about his aversion to baths. “Um… uh… I mean… if you want to… but uh…”

Sister’s gaze turned mischievous. “What’s the matter, Hunter dear? You’re not afraid of seeing me naked, or me seeing you naked, are you?”

The black-haired boy’s eyes returned to normal, his eyebrows lowering slightly as he folded his arms, seeming to have better control over his speech. “N-no, I don’t have any problems being seen naked, or seeing anyone else naked, boy or girl, as long as they’re okay with being seen that way. I was naked a lot when I was younger, sometimes for days on end, before and after a bath! No, I just don’t want to take a bath, or share one with anyone!”

“But, Hunter dear!” Sister’s expression didn’t change at all. “You can’t be afraid to take a bath! Everyone has to! Everyone else in this room takes a bath, if not a shower, at least once every day! We’ll both get our full-body wipes, rubs, and massages together, and I might even help them wipe, rub, and massage you! Then, once we get into the whirlpool bath, I’ll help them wash every inch of you, softly, slowly, soothingly, thoroughly, and invigoratingly, just like Georgina would! That’s how I used to wash myself, and to show you that you shouldn’t be afraid of bathing, especially not with friends, that’s how I’ll wash you, too. Every single morning!”

She then began to circle Hunter, speaking in a more relaxed, coaxing tone, as if adding the piece de resistance. “And you know how you think your skin feels slimy, after you’ve been washed, no matter how soothingly and thoroughly someone wipes your body after a bath? Well, I’ve got enough bottles of bath soap in my collection, so I’m sure we can find one of them that’ll make your skin not feel like that, any more! Besides, my dear sister also told me how you feel, once you’re in the water, and someone starts to wash you, and how you don’t want to get out, after that! You should keep that in mind, even though I’ll make sure we both get every inch of our bodies soothingly and thoroughly wiped after we get out, as well as soft, slow, towel rubs! You and I deserve to be pampered as much as the rest of us!”

I’d be lying if I told you he wasn’t at least considering that. I could hear him running through a few possibilities in his mind, part of him thinking it was a great idea, while the other part was shutting it down almost instantly, on the grounds that “regardless, it’s _still a bath._ ” I could tell Sister was reading his mind, too; apparently the truth that his thoughts were no longer private hadn’t sank into his mind yet, and I didn’t know if he had a mental shield like I did. Either way, Sister saw him playing right into her hands, and sought to convince the side of him that agreed with her, to overthrow the other side.

In the meantime, I could hear Aelita’s mind abuzz over the thoughts of how many different bottles of bath soap Sister had, and wondering if one would suit her as well. She ended up stealing a glance at her blond-haired knight-in-glasses, and her thoughts soon turned to the possibility of treating him to a warm, soothing, thorough, and invigorating team bath with her, once they got back to Kadic.

My silent mind-reading didn’t go unnoticed, though, as I soon heard a voice, tugging me out of my thoughts.

“You’ve been quiet, Cassidy,” Patrick noted. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just trying not to get caught up in the tide of everyone’s mind-conversations,” I giggled.

“I know what you mean!” Kiwi barked, eliciting a gasp from me when I realized what he meant. “Everyone’s minds are going around and around in circles! My poor little brain can’t keep up!”

“Oh, Kiwi… You must be having telepathy, too!” I smiled at him.

I knew those words soon wafted into Odd’s ears, as _mi novio_ whirled around, his face first showing surprise, before it magically morphed into excitement. “That’s fantastic! My little diggity-dog has become a psychic, just like you, Cat Girl! Wow…!”

The dog ran up to his master, stopping at his feet, and raising a paw, as if he wanted to shake hands—er, paws. “I don’t know about being a psychic like Cassidy, but I know I can sure read minds! And I think it’s a bit too much for me!”

“It’s a ‘getting used to’ kinda thing. I swear it was weird to hear every animal’s mind, too. All the squirrels wanted to find their nuts, birds—ugh…” Just the memory of the crows’ thoughts sent a shiver up _and_ down my spine.

“Don’t think about it, Cat Girl,” Odd reassured.

The sudden announcement of Kiwi becoming telepathic even froze Sister and Hunter in mid-proposition, the former snob standing behind the black-haired boy with her arms wrapped around him, as if she was pulling out the big guns, to convince him. The two adopted surprised looks, and I could hear Hunter mentally thanking me for the distraction, as they turned their attention toward Odd’s diggity-dog.

“Surprise,” Kiwi said meekly.

“K-Kiwi… too?!” Hunter stuttered out. “Wow… okiday, now I think I’ve seen and heard everything…”

“Even in that monster?” I asked.

He rubbed the back of his head, as Sister reached up to comb his hair with her fingers. “Well, when you put it _that_ way… yeah, now I’m stumped.”

“I still hope that my nightmare doesn’t come true…” I commented suddenly, starting to tremble. Thinking of the monster only made me think of the whitecoats with my mental shield raised, and one in particular that probably had a personal vendetta against me.

Luckily, Jeb was there to come to my rescue, as he put an arm around me, and began to softly rub my back, between my wings. “Why don’t we relax a bit? We probably shouldn’t tell the others what’s worrying you just yet, at least until you feel more comfortable telling them,” he whispered to me.

I nodded, taking a deep, relaxing breath. “Thanks, Jeb.”

Sister looked over at me, her look of surprise being replaced by one of worry, before she walked over to me. “What’s wrong, dear sister? Is that nightmare still bothering you?”

“Don’t worry, Sissi,” Jeb tried to soothe her, calmly. “Everything’s okay. Cassidy will tell you what’s going on when she’s ready to.”

I nodded. “Besides, I’m not ready yet.”

Soon it was time for breakfast. Dr. Martinez brought out three heaping plates of chocolate-chip pancakes, along with a couple jugs of maple syrup, and enough empty plates, knives and forks for the rest of us to dig in. As usual, Odd wasted no time drawing first from one pile, and I know he would have taken the entire stack, had we not been there to stop him. I managed to get at least six of my own, hoping that eating them would help calm me further. If the thought of my nightmare was bugging _me_ this much, I could only imagine how much more pain it would put my friends through, should they find out before I was ready to tell them.

Soon, we had devoured the pile of pancakes, and the next order of business for me, was to let Dr. Martinez check her incision site. Squeezing my eyes closed as she worked, Max and Ella’s mom had gently removed the surgical tape that held the gauze in place, and her eyes widened when she noticed the remains of the spot on my neck.

“Well, this is a nice surprise,” she commented, confusion in her voice.

“Is it infected?!” I squeaked, scared of what I would see.

“Thankfully, no,” Dr. Martinez replied, happiness slowly entering her tone. “It’s actually healed up completely. In fact, it’s healed up so much, that I can’t even tell I made an incision.”

There was a collective of gasps all around the room, mainly positive ones, while _mi novio_ raised his arms into the air, triumphantly.

“I always knew you were special, Cat Girl!” he exclaimed.

“How could it have healed up _that_ fast?” Jeremie was dumbfounded.

“I think I know why,” Yumi pointed out. “Cassidy, do you remember the first and second books?”

“How could I not?” I blinked, remembering when Max got clipped by a bullet in _The Angel Experiment_. “The Flock’s healing rate is faster than a…regular…human…being…”

Odd’s eyes widened. “Huh?! You mean to tell us that we can heal faster than normal?!”

I lowered my head. “It seems that way, _Novio…_ ”

His features slowly rearranged themselves into a look of curiosity. “So that means, that if I wanna learn how to fly, and I run into a tree, it’ll only hurt for a few seconds?”

“Not really. It might break a bone or two,” Max shook her head. “We had experiences with accidentally running into a tree. It’s not recommended.”

“Besides, we have a new order of business,” Fang nodded.

“We need to get you all home,” Gazzy added.

“You’re right, guys,” I agreed. “Besides, we are a long, long way from home.”

“But you’ll be back there before you know it,” Jeb added. “You guys have plotted out all the stops you wanted to make, aside from hotels, so unless there’s anything you want to do beforehand to prepare, we can head out, whenever you’re ready.”

“We can stay an extra day,” Kaitlyn brought up.

“If that’s what everyone wants to do,” Dr. Martinez offered, “then I don’t see why not.”

There was a mixture of spoken affirmatives, head nods and shrugs, but the general consensus was positive, and we all decided we would stay another day at Dr. Martinez’s house.

“So, what’ll we do for an extra day?” Ulrich was confused, as he stretched out his arms.

“We can always admire our new wings,” Sister suggested.

I pursed my lips at that thought. “That could work, but may I have that shirt, Dr. Martinez?”

Max’s and Ella’s mother nodded, before heading for the hallway. “Certainly. Let me go get it for you.”

“Thanks.”

While I waited, Odd grinned at me, before randomly reciting something in a voice of mock-surprise. “My head! It’s turned into a tomato!”

I was reminded of one of the non-sequiturs I spouted, not-so-positively, but it still made me laugh. “Oh, come off it, Odd…”

Even Ulrich picked up on this, the German-named boy adopting a mischievous grin. “Great! Now you can go play soccer west of Scotland!”

That one struck Odd’s funny bone, as he started to chuckle. “Maybe I’ll be the Most Valuable Player! Or we might have to play a… _ketchup game!_ ”

“Oh… I’ll never live that down…” I moaned, feeling as though I had dug my own grave a bit sooner than I had wanted to.

Yumi quickly picked up on this, as she walked over to Ulrich and Odd.

“Okay, you two,” she commented, folding her arms with a calm grin on her face. “I think that’s enough tomato heads for one day.”

Odd glanced over at me, surprised that I didn’t find it funny. “Yeah… maybe you’re right.”

He then suddenly turned around and, in a flash, adopted a malevolent grin as he faced Ulrich. “But I think we know someone who looks pretty when their teeth sparkle, right, good buddy?”

Immediately, Ulrich’s calm face morphed into a scowl. “ _Odd!!_ ”

Feeling at least slightly victorious for having gotten _mi novio_ and Samurai  onto another topic, Yumi slowly approached me, before placing her hands on my shoulders.

“Don’t worry,” she soothed, bringing her face near mine, a calming, reassuring look on hers. “You know they’re only playing around. They’d never do or say anything that would push you over the edge.”

“That’s right, but still. I feel so danged stupid for saying such a thing,” I muttered.

“You were half-awake, though.” My geisha friend started to softly rub my bare shoulders. “You really need to start forgiving yourself for things that are out of your control. It’s not like you could’ve suddenly snapped back to attention, in your right mind.”

“That’s true, I wasn’t in control even when the whitecoats had ambushed us. As for what I said in the chopper, I think they won’t let me live it down. I have forgiven myself for saying that, but someone brought it over my head—”

“Boys will be boys,” she soothed.

“Hiding in estrogen and wearing Aubergine dreams…?” I giggled.

She raised an eyebrow. “Huh?” But it didn’t take her long, and soon she was laughing along with me.

“Hey, you reminded me, Yumi. Plus that one day my plan worked hit me,” I chuckled.

Another voice soon joined us.

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” It was Aelita, who had overheard our conversation, and walked over to see what was going on.

“Oh, Odd is ragging on Ulrich, and I waxed lyrical to Yumi,” I recapped.

Her grin was soon complimented with a few chuckles. “Sounds like everything’s going just fine to me.”

“Yes, Aelita,” Jeremie smiled, amused by the routines.

As the six of us continued our conversations, William walked over toward Jeremie, Aelita, Yumi, and I.

“I bet Odd’s gonna win,” he exhumed with a grin. “He’s always got the upper hand over Ulrich.”

“How can you tell?” I asked.

“It’s easy.” He turned his glance on me. “Ulrich looks like he’s looking down at the carpet, a sure sign he can’t think of anything, while Odd looks confident. He’s got a few tricks up his sleeves, even if Ulrich manages a comeback.”

“Hey, at least he doesn’t have to worry about Yumi in the conversation, right, Ex-y?”

“That’s probably one of Odd’s backup plans.” He folded his arms, his grin increasing.

“Of course Odd’s got it under control!” An excited-sounding, slightly deep, feminine voice soon joined us, belonging to Sam. “He’s always got things like this under control!”

“Ooh, boy. This is gonna be good!” I giggled softly.

But of course, there had to be someone taking the other side, and today, Patrick happened to be that someone, as he walked up to us, next. “Nah, Ulrich’s just biding his time. He’ll let Odd think he’s winning, and then come back with an uppercut. I’ve seen him in these situations. He’s like Rocky Balboa.”

“But Odd wins, Patrick,” Aelita smirked. “My ‘cousin’s’ got this all figured out.”

He slowly gained a grin of his own, as he raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”

 “Wanna take bets?” I countered, an equally mischievous beam of my own growing on my face. “Within reason wagers, of course.”

Next, Sister approached, folding her arms in worry. “Oh, no! I remember _last_ time you took wagers, sister dear! It never ends well!”

“Hey, the bet was that I had to speak Spanish for 24 hours, even if we returned back in time,” I blinked. “That was the last time I took wagers.”

She wasn’t convinced. “But all that’s going to do is keep Ulrich and Odd going!”

I sighed, feeling defeat within my grasp. “Way to burst a bubble, Sister.”

“Oh, alright, fine!” she replied, folding her arms angrily. “It was for your own good, my dear sister! But if you think you’ve got a better idea…”

In no time at all, nearly everyone had made a bet, on who would outsmart the other. Of course, shortly after all of the bets were taken, to almost nobody’s surprise, Odd won.

“I win!” I giggled. “I said that he would win within the time it took to make the bets.”

William sighed, admitting defeat, even though I knew he sometimes didn’t take it very gracefully. “Alright, you win… but I’ll bet it was your psychic powers that told you exactly when to bet!”

That’s when Sister came up to William, looking a bit upset. “Hey, if my sister won fair and square, there’s no need to point fingers, William dear!”

“Actually, Ex-y, I kept my powers out of the betting. Gotta keep the playing field clean, after all. I just ran on good ole female intuition,” I smiled, in a way that would make the clone of Jeremie in that simulation bubble cry.

“At least it was right this time,” William added with a chuckle.

“Again, wasn’t there when Odd—”

“Okay! Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Yumi smiled. “Just be glad that you won.”

And that was when Odd overheard, as he walked over to us. “Won? What’d you win, Cat Girl?”

“Another bet, as usual,” I giggled.

“This is her fifth bet won,” Jeremie noted.

“Not consecutively.”

“That’s great!” Odd folded his arms, closed his eyes, and grinned widely. “And I’ll bet I won it for you, too!”

I grinned. “Yep. Plus you were great. You had Ulrich on the run.”

Ulrich walked over, his arms folded. “Only ’cause he caught me off-guard. I thought I had him, and then he comes back at me with Yumi, of all—I—I— mean… you’d think he’d… come up with a better tactic than that.”

“I don’t know… Secret weapons are hard to come by,” Aelita smirked.

“He’s lucky you’re untouchable, Cassidy,” he lamented. “I can’t get him back with that.”

“Yeah, if you drag me into another bet against my will, you know how I’ll choose my revenge,” I grinned.

Ulrich growled. He remembered how he had beaten me at a bet, but made such a royal screw-up afterward, that I decided to change the rules. Instead of me doing what _he_ wanted, _he_ had to do what _I_ wanted, within reason. “Remember what I said about too much throttle?!”

“I might crash, but that was when Jeremie used that program, silly,” I chuckled.

Nearby, we could hear Jeremie chuckling as he walked over to us. “Whatever! Let’s just try to focus on something else now, okay?”

“That sounds like a good idea, Einstein,” Odd agreed.

“Now that we’ve got all this extra time on our hands,” Aelita added, coming up next to her blond-haired beloved, “I wonder how we can use it.”

“I don’t know.” I raised my shoulders, feeling a slight twinge shoot from my neck. “Ow…”

Just as I felt the pain, Dr. Martinez returned with the t-shirt.

“I’ve got the t-shirt, if you want to—” She halted as she noticed my reaction. “Cassidy, are you alright?”

“Just my neck hurting from the procedure, but nothing major, unless it’s a phantom pain.”

Jeremie looked over at me, worry crossing his features. “But how can you still feel pain from your neck operation, if your body completely healed the wound?”

“I’m not sure…” Dr. Martinez approached me with the shirt in her hand. “It could be, as Cassidy suggested, merely a ‘phantom pain’, but it baffles me as well, Jeremie.”

“Or, Valencia, since it’s been a day, Cassidy could have a high physical pain threshold,” Jeb theorized.

“You might be right, Jeb,” Dr. Martinez agreed, as she took another look at the spot where she had made the incision. “You are quite a mysterious girl, Cassidy, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by this.”

“I have been a bit of an enigma since I moved to Kadic. Psychic powers, a monster I unleashed, a coma, deactivating a tower in a weird Replika, having it explode with me in it, being found alive, a new room, finding out the truth, an assembly, XANA being weakened, a celebration, being kidnapped afterward, smuggled here, tested, chipped, experimented on, new powers for all my friends—I’m not sure who I am sometimes,” I grimaced.

“But you’re not just _any_ enigma,” Odd jumped in as he walked over to me, putting his arm around my back, “you’re _our_ enigma! And we couldn’t do without you, Cat Girl!”

“That’s right!” Yumi agreed, giving me a thumbs-up.

“And you’ve got incredible friends, who have been with you through every second of it,” Dr. Martinez pointed out, smiling warmly at me as she gently slid the shirt over my head and arms.

“Thanks, Dr. Martinez,” I smiled. “And thank you, Odd and Yumi!”

“Personally,” Jeremie felt it was necessary to add his two Euros, “I think you, Cassidy, are a very interesting person, and without you, I don’t think I could’ve gotten very far on my own. Your psychic powers and abilities have, except for a few special occasions, always come in handy, and no matter what any of us think, we wouldn’t want you any other way.”

“A few special occasions?” I asked curiously, not getting mad.

“Well, uh…” Even if I hadn’t gotten mad at him, he still hesitated, adopting a sheepish grin as he continued. “Remember that time when, uh… you guys went for that trial run in the Skid? How it, uh… took us a few tries… to get my CD-R that had the Skid’s programs on it?”

“Yeah, I swear, my powers were weak then,” I blushed.

Einstein changed to waving his hands in front of his chest, fearing that I was going to feel terrible about that. “But nobody blames you for that, don’t worry.”

“Hey, you got the program and saved us, Einstein, even if the only one who would believe your high-wire act is me,” I giggled.

Odd started chuckling as well. “How did I know I was gonna get that right!”

“I didn’t even ruin that moment,” I cackled.

“Hey, I was surprised by that, too!” Jeremie reminded Odd and I. “It was almost like your Future Flash came back for a moment!”

“It almost seemed that way, didn’t it,” I smiled, before my face gradually drooped. “I ran through my vision notes, finding no other Future Flash moments after that… time with… the l-laughing gas…”

“But if he’s got telepathy, like most of us have,” William added, “he’ll have something better than Future Flash, won’t he?”

Yumi looked at him, lowering her eyebrows slightly. “It doesn’t work like that, William. Telepathy is one power, but he’s not a psychic, like Cassidy.”

I shivered, whimpering as I lowered my mental shield. _Uh… c-comfort, please?_

Yumi’s eyes widened as she whirled around, wondering why this had suddenly come about, before walking over and embracing me in a warm, comforting hug. “What’s wrong, Cassidy?”

“She’s probably still got chills over the laughing gas incident,” Odd suggested, making an incredibly good guess as he walked closer to me, as well. “Poor Cat Girl, it left a really deep scar.”

Yumi snuggled me closer, softly and slowly rubbing my back, between my wings. “XANA pulled a terrible one on her, that day.”

I nodded, hugging her back. “I’m never getting my wisdom teeth taken out _ever_!”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Jeremie tried to reassure me. “And that incident was out of your control, as well.”

“I don’t blame m-myself for that one… It scared me, Einstein! Even Aelita c-couldn’t reason with me because I was so far out of it!” I rambled.

“It scared me, too, Cassidy.” Jeremie began to grimace. “It chased me throughout the sewers underneath the factory. I had to jump into the water, just to finally avoid it.”

“I was amazed it interfered with yours and Odd’s virtualization sequences,” Aelita commented, looking concerned for me as well. “XANA thought he could stop us, by incapacitating the two of you, but Future Flash really came in handy that day.”

“Yes, thank goodness for Odd,” I whimpered, trembling hard.

Feeling my shaking increase, Yumi snuggled me closer to her body, slowed down her soft, gentle back rubs, and leaned closer to my ear, cooing softly. “There… you’re okay, Cassidy. XANA’s never going to use that same attack on us a second time. You won’t have to worry about it ever again.”

That slowly calmed me right down, as I let her soft, slow back rubs finish the job. Did I mention I love how warm, kind, and sisterly Yumi was? “Thanks, Yumi…”

“She’s right, though,” Kaitlyn agreed, remembering something she had seen via the monster. “XANA never uses the same attack twice. That was a few years ago. If he was gonna do a bigger-scale version of that, he would’ve done it already.”

“Yeah, those wounds kinda run deep. I’m just glad I didn’t have a false vision of you, Hunter, Sam, Kiwi, or Patrick,” I giggled sheepishly.

“Well, if it was Kiwi or me,” Sam jumped in, trying to calm me down, or keep the mood light-hearted, “at least you would have had something to go on, as you probably wouldn’t have known about Hunter, Patrick or Kaitlyn.”

“I only knew Patrick a short time before a strange circumstance occurred,” I blinked. “Even _he_ doesn’t know what had happened. In one of my vision journals, he went away because his parents wanted him at a school closer to home.”

“That’s why I’m glad that was only in the first timeline,” Patrick lamented, smiling. “In our timeline, I’m still at Kadic with my cousins. I don’t think I would’ve ever had adventures like this at another school.”

“And the one thing I don’t understand,” Hunter added, sounding and looking confused, “is why Mr. Delmas showed up to tell Patrick he _wouldn’t_ be staying, after the Return to the Past, rather than _before_ it. If what I’ve seen about time rewinds is true, and when time is reversed, everything happens exactly the same way, unless someone such as us, who knows that time was reversed, or XANA, acts to change it… wouldn’t it have meant that he wasn’t going to be enrolled into Kadic, anyway?”

“It baffled me to no end, too, Hunter. When I saw Patrick staying longer than the foosball tournament, I was pleasantly shocked. I asked Jeremie about it, but all I got from him was that Patrick was at Kadic to stay. It blew my mind but brought a smile to my face.”

“At the time,” Jeremie tried to explain, “I had no idea that Patrick actually wasn’t going to be enrolled. I just accepted the sequence of events as normal. It was when I saw the monster, that I started to understand. But you’re right, Hunter and Cassidy. The original timeline makes absolutely no sense, whatsoever. If Patrick’s parents were going to cancel his enrollment, it would have happened after everyone left my room, to head to the rec room, or while Aelita was trying to knock some sense into me.”

“And you made peace with me quicker, the second time around,” Patrick admitted, smiling at his male cousin, “than the first time. And that was thanks to Cassidy.”

I grinned, a sheepish blush flooding my cheeks. “All I did was use some psychology lessons. I’m not very good, I have to admit, but it helped him.”

“I think you’re better than you say you are.” Aelita gave me a knowing grin. “But I’m sure I would have felt terrible, if I had to yell at Jeremie.”

“Well, you, uh…” The thought was even making Jeremie slightly uncomfortable, from the looks of things. “You probably had a… really good reason to?”

Sam folded her arms, a mischievous grin overtaking her features. “Nah, all she had to do was kiss you!”

“That could’ve worked,” I giggled.

Jeremie turned his eyes toward a wall, his cheeks slowly gaining a pinkish tint in the process. “I… don’t know if you would’ve had to go… that far…”

Aelita smiled with a slight hint of mischief. “Only if you wouldn’t listen to reason. You were acting silly that day, anyway.”

I blinked. “I’m just glad my speech ended up doing some good.”

Einstein slowly nodded, using what I said as a diversion to try and get his head back on straight. “Y-you’re right. It certainly came in handy that day.”

“I don’t know if I need more work on it.”

He held his hand out partway, twitching it slightly. “Maybe a little bit… but you certainly got your point across, and we understood you, anyway.”

“Anyways,” Odd suddenly jumped in, “why don’t we find something fun to do? Do you wanna go clothes shopping, Cat Girl? Or is there something else you wanna do?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “That would be lovely.”

“We can go to that Walmart place,” Sister suggested, a grin blossoming across the lower part of her face, “or whatever it’s called, and I’ll find you five or six shirts from My Little Pony, so you can have your own mini wardrobe!”

“You got it right on the nose,” I giggled.

“Do we all need to go shopping?” Ulrich inquired, raising an eyebrow.

“Just four of you can go as Cassidy’s protection,” Jeremie smiled.

“I volunteer!” Odd exclaimed, raising his hand.

“I’ll go, too,” Aelita offered, beaming warmly.

“You might as well count me in,” Yumi added with a similar grin.

“I know I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to go clothes-shopping with you, dear sister!” Sister chimed in, making herself the fourth accomplice.

“Thanks, everyone,” I giggled.

“And we could take care of a few things here,” Patrick suggested, even though he looked as if he wasn’t sure what those few things would be.

“Maybe we could pick up a laptop for Jeremie,” Aelita suggested. “Just in case XANA decides to pull something, before we get back to France.”

“It’s not every day you get separated from your equipment,” Jeremie nodded.

“That’s a great idea,” Jeb agreed. “We can all head over to Walmart, and the rest of you can browse the computer section. You’re bound to find a good one there, but if not, there’s a computer store in the same plaza.”

“Jeremie, maybe you can come, too. You would want to find the perfect back-up, if you know what I mean,” I grinned.

He nodded. “Of course. It would depend on the processing power. As long as I can find one with a processor as powerful as, or more powerful than, the one in my laptop, it should work perfectly. Piece of cake.”

“Yeah, because I don’t want to pick out a laptop and have you get all mad that we chose the wrong one. Ugh… the day that happens, it won’t end well.” I shuddered, putting a hand over my clothed chest.

“And I could help him, too,” Hunter offered, raising his right index finger. “I’m not as good of a programmer as he is, but I love computers nearly as much, and I’d love to help him pick out one, even if it’s just to see all the computers they have there. And then that computer store, next door…”

Ulrich turned to look at Hunter, a smile slowly growing on his face. “You’re into computers, too? You and Einstein are bound to be best friends. You can probably even help him and Aelita with some of their projects.”

Hunter turned to glance at Jeremie, his grin increasing. “I would love to help you write programs and things like that, Jeremie! When I saw the monster show me all the work you do, I was amazed, and even though I’m not as good of a programmer as you are, we both write in the same programming language, so hopefully I’ll be of some help to you and Aelita.”

“That’ll depend on your skill,” Jeremie replied, pushing his glasses up over the bridge of his nose. “When your aunt and uncle enroll you into Kadic, you’ll have to show me some of the programs you’ve made, and we’ll go from there.”

“Einstein, Princess, Henri, and Hunter, working on programs day and night,” Odd grinned. “They’ll have to call you guys the ‘Fantastic Four’!”

“Oh, no, if that happens, we’ll have to figure out ways to get them to sleep,” Ulrich chuckled.

Hunter chuckled a bit, as he shook his head. “Don’t worry, I know my limits. I would love to do a few all-nighters, particularly on Saturday nights, but other than that, I’ll be in bed at a reasonable hour. You won’t have to trick me, or anything like that.”

“You’re like the opposite of my cousin,” Kaitlyn giggled. “He pulls all-nighters all the time.”

“That was before our abduction,” Jeremie attempted to correct her, folding his arms. “Since we’ve been in the United States, I’ve gone to bed at a regular time, just like everyone else in this room.”

“That’s true, but you still talk in your sleep,” Aelita pointed out, giggling. “You’re very talkative. _That_ must be what Cassidy meant when she threatened you with a pillow.”

“Um…” Jeremie quickly turned his head away from his pink-haired girlfriend, the sides of his face sporting a rosy tint. “You’re not gonna… make a big deal out of that… are you, Aelita?”

“Of course not,” Aelita replied with a grin, before adding in her mind, despite the fact that almost everyone could hear it, _at least not around everyone else._ “You forget, Jeremie, that Cassidy talks in her sleep, as well.”

He whirled back around, looking surprised. “So, why don’t you threaten to hit _her_ with a pillow, then?!”

Not to be outdone, Aelita folded her arms, adopting a mischievous, yet playful, grin. “Unlike yours, Jeremie, Cassidy’s sound more amusing and harmless, than anything else.”

“I still find the one with Kiwi trying to earn his saxophone license funny,” Odd jumped in, chortling. “As well as the salamanders…”

The salamander reference caught me off-guard, as I turned a surprised gaze toward _mi novio._ “Huh?! What are you talking about?”

“The day Einstein tried to teach Ulrich, Yumi, and me how to run the Supercomputer. When I zapped Specter Gadget after he beat you and Yumi up, I laid you down next to Jeremie as you asked, after he got zapped, and you told me not to let the salamanders sing to me, but I can’t remember why. Then, you brought it back up when you had a nightmare at the hospital.”

“I guess he beat me senseless, and I tried to retain as much as I could before I blacked out,” I blinked, feeling my cheeks heat up. “Along with Yumi, I was tossed around a lot.”

“I’ve never seen XANA act that way before,” Aelita admitted, worry crossing her features as we could hear her recall that day in her mind. “If Odd hadn’t stepped in, I’m afraid of what more he would’ve done.”

“Me, too. I still remember that I had to use an ice pack on my sore parts,” I groaned.

“And I had burns on my chest,” Jeremie lamented, the memory of that day not a particularly good one for him, either. “At least you came up with a believable lie for us to tell Yolanda.”

“What else could I say without giving up the secret?” I blinked, before I suddenly remembered that I had already given away the secret, but long after that moment had come and gone.

“The only way I learned how to use the Supercomputer was through XANA,” William jumped in with a neutral look on his face, hoping it would distract me from whatever guilt he thought I was feeling from my last statement. “I thought it’d be complicated at first, but after you guys saved me from his clutches, I kept that in my mind, and it feels like it’s second nature, now.”

“How hard _is_ it to run the Supercomputer, Jeremie?” Patrick turned a skeptical gaze, complete with head-scratching, on his male cousin.

“To Einstein? It’s not hard for him at all,” Ulrich scoffed.

“You’re right,” Yumi added with a smile. “It is kinda complicated, and I’ve been able to figure it out a few times, but there’s a lot stuff to remember.”

“Even when I was able to, my powers were the ones that taught me a few things, but as time dragged on, I couldn’t remember the ‘Return to the Past’ function to save my life,” I blinked. “And I only ran the return trip once!”

“Me either!” Ulrich raised his hands up to shoulder level. “The only way I’ve ever been able to do it, is either with Jeremie’s help over the phone, or from his notes. And finding something in his notes is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Anyway, we’ll also get a few outfits for everyone else, too,” Jeb smiled. “At least you won’t have to use the same clothes every day.”

Hunter shrugged. “I guess it’s worth a try, so long as you don’t surprise me with what you buy me.”

“Yeah, we’ve been in the same outfits for a while,” Sister agreed.

I nodded. “And even though I love Odd’s pants, this fashion’s getting old.”

It only took Odd a few seconds to realize what I was referencing, and he started to chuckle. “Relax, Rarity. We’ll get you a whole new wardrobe!”

I blushed at his reply. “Uh… um… y-you know I-I—”

Odd chuckled again, and soon his arms had surrounded me, giving me a warm, relaxing hug. “Don’t worry, Cat Girl! I know you like Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle! I was just kidding, ’cause you were talking like Rarity!”

“Sorry. I got a bit nervous, I guess.”

“Don’t be! I’m just being silly!”

Jeb soon walked over, a smile on his face, as he started to softly rub my back, between my wings. “You don’t have to worry, Cassidy. Everything is okay.”

I smiled in reply, relaxing under Jeb’s soft touch. “Thanks, guys.”

“Don’t sweat it, Cat Girl,” Odd smiled.

Yumi added a warm smile of her own. “Besides, maybe a change of clothes will help us all relax, and feel better.”

“Of course!” Sister grinned, closing her eyes before turning to look at Yumi, and reopening them. “And if I could give you some fashion advice, Yumi, darling, you could always stick with dark colors, but add something that gives you more of a warm, inviting appearance, rather than pushing people away. That way, you give off the right sort of image.”

Yumi looked down at her shirt, before returning her gaze to Sister. “You know, Sissi, that’s actually a good idea. Thank you.”

“I do know that pink doesn’t suit you at all, Yumi,” I pointed out. “I am glad to have taken your place in the Kadic newspaper, but at the same time, that picture of you was just…just… your family probably had good intentions, I bet.” 

“It’s okay, Cassidy,” My geisha reassured me. “I didn’t look good in that, either.”

“That’s why you’ll never have to wear pink ever again, Yumi, darling,” Sister reassured her with an equally convincing smile.

“Thank you, Sissi,” she smiled.

“Why don't we all go?” Ulrich asked, shrugging.

“It's a good idea,” Yumi agreed.

“Are you kidding?” Odd interjected, grinning. “I love the way I look! I don’t need any new clothes!”

“I’m with Odd,” William agreed. “We all look fine, the way we are. You just wanted to get a shirt for Cass? Well, just get a shirt for Cass. We don’t have to go around changing everyone’s wardrobe, just because somebody needs a new shirt.”

“I would love to pick something up for Tutu,” Kiwi woofed.

Jeremie’s eyes widened, the blond genius gritting his teeth slightly, before allowing himself to relax. _Odd’s dog talking like a human shouldn’t keep bothering me… why aren’t I used to it by now?_

“You’ve been used to me barking for a long time,” he grinned.

Einstein’s eyes widened, again, and I couldn’t help but giggle a bit at his thoughts, now. _Ugh...why can’t I get used to him_ reading my thoughts, either?!

I gritted my teeth, hissing my laughter through them.

He whirled around, noticing the sound I was making, and sent a slight glare in my direction. “I know! Everyone in this room can read my thoughts, almost! You don’t have to rub it in!”

But I wasn’t rubbing it in; at least, I wasn’t trying to. Jeremie didn’t see that, though, and it made me feel terrible. I immediately stopped laughing, my head bowing forward in shame.

His eyes widened, my reaction sending the memory of Dr. Chantal’s apology, from when we were in the hospital, in front of his mind’s eye. He gently cupped my chin and lifted my head to his level. “Cassidy, hey!”

“I-I wasn't trying to—”

“I was being an idiot, okay?” He continued, cutting me off. “I’m still not used to Kiwi just talking to me like a human. Yes, it’s more tolerable than his constant barking, but part of me hasn’t adjusted fully. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“I just wasn't rubbing it in. I was just thinking it was humorous,” I blinked, letting myself slowly calm down.

“I guess in some ways, it can be pretty funny,” he admitted.

A grin overtook Odd’s face, as he knelt down to rub Kiwi’s belly. “That’s my special diggity-dog!”

“That's right, Odd, Master,” Kiwi smiled, kicking his hind leg.

So, despite a few objections, we decided to all go to Walmart anyway. It didn’t take us long to hop into the van with Ari and Georgina, and we soon drove off. Once we arrived, no matter anyone’s objections, Sister helped everyone pick out a new outfit, keeping in the spirit of their existing outfits’ color schemes. We all figured we’d change into them the next day, before we started off on our journey. After everyone had chosen clothing, Jeremie, Aelita and Hunter immediately went over to the electronics section, where it took Einstein nearly a half-hour to find a good temporary laptop. After Odd, William, Sam, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and I looked through the music section, while the three computer techies were in the electronics section, we paid for our purchases and headed back to Dr. Martinez’s house. After a day of fun and planning, Georgina gave all twelve of us slow, soothing, refreshing, and invigorating full-body wipes, rubs, and massages before we all turned in for the night. We made sure to get an early start, to save time.

Tomorrow would be the journey back to Kadic, and we all hoped that it would be smooth sailing from here on in.


	15. On the Road Again

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do own our own OC’s.**

One good night’s sleep later, the twelve of us woke refreshed, and ready to begin our cross-country road trip. A hearty breakfast soon followed, and we immediately jumped into packing what things we had brought with us, particularly my belated birthday presents, the laptop we bought Jeremie, to hold him over until we got back to France, and of course, the new outfits Sister helped us all pick out. This took us about forty-five minutes, and before long, we were loading everything we had packed into the van, aided by Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, with Dr. Martinez and Ella there to see us all off.

“And if you ever need anything, like to chat or something, I’ve had Jeb write down my number on a piece of paper,” Dr. Martinez smiled.

“Thanks again, Dr. Martinez. You helped us a lot,” I grinned in return, trying as hard as I could to keep my emotions in check. Even if it would be a while before I saw her again, I didn’t want to start sobbing all over her shoulder, or shirt.

She gently wrapped her arms around me. “It’s no problem. We’ll try to visit you in France when we can.”

“We would love that very much,” Yumi beamed.

“She’s right,” Aelita agreed, with a nearly identical grin on her face. “Anytime you like. It’ll be great to see you. But no rush.”

“I hope you have safe travels, as well,” Max’s mother said.

Even though she had meant well, all her words brought to my mind’s eye was the vision I had of Jeremie falling out the van’s side door. “And I hope that my vision doesn’t come to fruition.”

“And I’m sure it won’t, Cassidy,” my former first roommate smiled reassuringly.

“I sure hope not, either,” Jeremie lamented, not sharing his pink-haired girlfriend’s enthusiasm. “I’d rather not find out the hard way, that my wings haven’t finished growing enough to support me.”

“And I don’t want you going splat,” I squealed, my nerves starting to creep up on me.

As usual, _mi novio_ donned his usual carefree, laid back persona. “Oh, relax, you two. We’re not even on the road yet.”

“I know, Ninja-Cat-Boy, but it could still happen,” I blinked, feeling as stressed as a person too afraid to reconnect with an estranged friend.

Of course, as William walked by, carrying his suitcase toward the back of the van, I couldn’t help but think that he was as optimistic about my vision not coming true as Odd was.

“Yeah, and Rarity might open a shop in Manehattan,” he quipped as he loaded on the additional baggage.

“She’s got her sights on Canterlot for the moment, William,” I pointed out. “We have a small idea about what goes on in that town, thanks to Applejack being there when she was younger.”

William stopped near me, as I finished my sentence. “See? That just proves my point. Since she’s just sticking to Canterlot, you’re worrying too much, Cass.”

“But a lot of my visions came true in the past, and you know that,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but not in sequence.” _Mi ex novio_ shrugged, seeming to forget that he needed to grab more suitcases to load into the back of the van. “You’re going to be wrong one of these times.

“Like I was wrong about _this_?” I pointed to the pink hair strand that Sister dutifully braided before breakfast.

Seeing the possibility of my conversation with William getting a bit heated, Yumi quickly stepped in. “William, don’t you think you should be helping Jeb, Ari, and Georgina load the suitcases into the back of the van?”

I nodded. “Yes, please, Ex-y…”

William brought his hands up by his head, a bit surprised.

“Okay, okay, I’m going… I’m not deaf!” he complained, walking away from Yumi and me, and heading back into Dr. Martinez’s house.

“You okay, Cassidy?” she whispered as soon as he was out of earshot.

“He doesn’t understand sometimes…” I muttered. “Most of my visions ended up coming true, with or without me. And a couple of them happened when I was under XANA’s control.”

She put her arm around my back and gave me a soft, gentle, and soothing back rub. “Maybe he knows better than you think. He’s been under XANA’s control, too, and he’s probably trying to be optimistic. Especially since he’s still stinging from the things XANA made him do to you.”

“Yeah, but some of the optimism left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth,” I sighed, relaxing with her touch.

She nodded understandingly. “Yeah… you’re right. But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Just think of all the wonderful things we’ll get to do, once we get going. Maryland is all the way at the other end of the United States, don’t forget.”

“That’s true. I mean there’s a lot of good places, but my stomach still feels unsettled with the vision I had of Jeremie. I would hate to attend his funeral if we can’t prevent it,” I grimaced. “And I can’t forget about it, it’s still going to happen somewhere.”

“Maybe it’ll only happen on a straight strip of road,” my geisha friend tried to be reassuring, as more and more suitcases were carried out. “Or when we’re driving on the part of a highway that’s surrounded by grass. It doesn’t have to happen on a part where the road’s raised up.”

“I really hope that would be the case, but before Jeremie smacked me, I remember you were about to do something, but I can’t recall what it was.”

Yumi remembered that that point was exactly where I said my vision cut off, thanks to Jeremie’s slap. She, too, was curious about what she had done but hoped she would find out before the moment occurred… _if_ it did.

“Maybe I was… trying to reach out and grab Jeremie’s arm, before the wind pulled him away?” she guessed, thinking it might help jumpstart my memory.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “It was already too late for that. He went over the guardrail.”

Yumi grimaced, letting out a slight squeak of fear, at that. However, before she could add anything else, Jeremie happened to walk over, checking out the Supercomputer on his new laptop, before looking over at me and gaining a reassuring smile.

“Listen, Cassidy,” he began, sounding somewhat sure of himself. “Maybe you really shouldn’t worry about it, huh? Your mind might be projecting images of ourselves onto something else… such as an old, forgotten memory, or something.”

“My mind doesn’t project images, Jeremie. They feel vibrant and real to me, remember?” I asked. “Remember when I had those nightmares about Aelita being at the hospital because of the uranium battery being almost dead? Those felt so real.”

Einstein’s reassuring expression slowly turned to one of worry. “Yeah… m-maybe you’re right… And that’s something I’d really rather forget about… but it… didn’t give an exact time, or even an exact place, something we could identify just by nearby landmarks, did it?”

“It was afternoon, after lunch, because I didn’t hear anything about Odd belly-aching about no food. But as for an exact place… I don’t know, but it was really high up with rocky outcroppings,” I blinked.

“Well…” Jeremie began, extending his arms outward, parallel to his sides in uncertainty, “that could be anywhere within the State of California. Maybe we should avoid going into Los Angeles, or San Francisco, or Sacramento…”

“It could be anywhere,” Yumi jumped in. “What if it’s not in California? What if it’s in Nevada or Wyoming? The point is, we shouldn’t be afraid to travel, because of that. If anything, we should probably make sure Jeremie doesn’t sit close enough to the side door. That way, if it does suddenly get thrown open while we’re driving, Jeremie won’t get pulled out.”

“I hope that works, Yumi,” I whimpered.

“It’s probably the only choice we have,” Jeremie agreed, his worried face slowly disappearing. “Maybe we should check the seatbelts in the van, just in case?”

“They work, Jeremie,” Georgina reassured, doing more checks under the van’s hood.

Hoping to relax me further, Yumi walked behind me and began to slowly, softly, and soothingly rub my back with both hands. “And for all we know, it might not even happen this week. We really shouldn’t worry about it, Cassidy. Otherwise, we’re going to miss out on all the fun things we all want to do.”

I nodded, feeling a shiver come on. “Oh, my…”

That was when Aelita happened to walk past. Noticing the look on my face, she immediately walked over, adopting a look of concern as she placed a reassuring hand on my right shoulder. “Are you okay, Cassidy?”

“I feel shivers coming on. I still don’t know why I shake before I-I have a-a vision.” I immediately hugged my sides, hoping to stop the shivering, even though I looked awfully silly, holding back such shaking on a warm, sunny day.

And it wasn’t long before Jeb noticed, as well.

“Hey, are you cold, Cassidy?” he asked in a concerned tone as he walked up.

“N-no… I just d-don’t know why I s-shake/shiver b-before having a vision…” I told him. “N-never had it happen before…”

“I wonder if your body has gotten used to not having them for a while,” Jeb took a guess, “so now that they’ve come back, it doesn’t know how to handle the energy? You said they had suddenly disappeared after the monster and your coma, right?”

I nodded, still scared of having a vision that detailed another one of my friends meeting their doom. “It's s-still—”

Jeb nodded, understandingly. “How long do you think it will take before your vision starts?”

“I d-don't k-know… Don't w-want t-to see it…”

Max and Ari’s father placed his hand on my shoulder, as Yumi was still giving my back a slow, soothing rub. “Maybe we should just wait and see. It might not be as bad as you think. It might show you the rest of the vision you had earlier, or it might be something else entirely. Either way, I think you should relax.”

I closed my eyes, focusing on Yumi’s slow, soft rubs between my wings, and lowering my defenses against my psychic powers. Slowly, the shivering began to cease, before stopping altogether. And at that moment, my eyes shot open, now a pure, milky white.

Thankfully, this vision wasn’t as bad as I had imagined it to be. Within my mind, I could see Odd slowly trying to figure out how to use his new wings effectively. He would fly in all different directions, catching himself before hitting the ground, and even climbing trees to get a decent height to jump from. It looked incredibly amateurish, at least at first. I couldn't help but chuckle at the behavior _mi novio_ was exhibiting. He was acting as he did when Jeremie programmed the vehicles on Lyoko.

And this time, when the vision stopped, it wasn’t thanks to a whack from one of my friends; the vision ended on its own, as my pupils returned to normal, and the grin was still etched onto my face.

“See? It wasn't too bad,” Jeb smiled.

Aelita’s face soon bore a similar grin, as she gazed at me in anticipation. “Well, tell us; how did it go?”

“Odd was learning how to fly,” I giggled.

And of course, I just happened to mention that, just as the boy in question came walking up with his puppy in his arms.

“Learning how to fly?” he repeated, as a grin slowly grew on the bottom part of his face. “Coo-ool! How far did I get?”

“Pretty far, but of course you had been a beginner at first,” I smiled.

Aelita couldn’t help but giggle. “Hopefully you didn’t run into too many trees, Odd.”

“Are you kidding?” Odd grinned proudly at his ‘Canadian cousin.' “The way _I_ fly, Princess, _nothing_ gets in my way!”

I giggled.

Jeremie closed his laptop, before placing it under his arm as he looked at Odd. “And this is why you’ll never be a good delivery boy, Odd. They’d be calling you ‘Odd of France.’”

Then he turned to look at me. “At least you got a good vision, though. But I really would’ve liked to know what happened to me, after I fall out of the side door.”

“I'm sorry, Jeremie,” I muttered, feeling like a failure for not giving him exactly what he wanted. It wasn’t like I could control my visions like the weather, or anything.

His expression quickly turned to worry, realizing he hadn’t exactly used the best choice of words. “I-I-I didn’t mean it like that, Cassidy… I’m _glad_ you had a good vision. After that scary one you had yesterday, you were long overdue. I was just hoping I could know whether I die, or not.”

“She understands, Jeremie,” Aelita turned her attention to him. “But Cassidy doesn’t always have control of her visions. Sometimes they’re really just random.”

“It's like a shuffle option on an iPod after you manually activate it, Einstein,” I blinked, still feeling guilty.

He donned a sheepish grin, sounding apologetic. “T-that’s okay… hopefully, that one comes up soon.”

“Well, I'm glad that she saw me flying,” Odd smiled.

“Oh, no!” The next one out of the house was Hunter, carrying a suitcase in each hand, with a worried look on his face. “Not you, too! We can’t lose two of you, now!”

“What do you mean?” I asked, a bit confused.

“Um… Odd just said that you saw him ‘flying,'” Hunter tried to explain, slowly starting to look distraught, before I cut him off.

“With his wings, silly,” I giggled.

He took a deep breath like a load had been taken off his shoulders. “Ohhhh…! Flying _that_ way… that’s a relief… I’d hate the thought of losing a friend.”

“We’re not going to lose Odd the Great, the Brave, the Magnificent,” _mi novio_ chuckled.

Hunter found himself chuckling a bit, as well. “Thank goodness. But at least we’ll know if our wings have matured enough so that we _can_ fly.”

“He’ll probably try it at one of our stops,” Yumi took a guess, a slightly sly grin on her face. “I’ll bet William will want to try flying, too.”

“Are you kidding?” Sounding excited, William came out of Dr. Martinez’s house, buried under a pile of suitcases; it seemed incredible he could carry them all. “Odd’s not gonna be the only one to try out his wings. I’ll probably fly even higher than he will.”

“I'm not sure about testing mine.” I raised a finger.

“Me, either,” Aelita agreed with a nod. “Maybe after they’ve grown for a bit longer.”

“I sure hope mine grow fast enough,” Jeremie lamented.

Of course, he couldn’t let me forget about that vision, _could_ he?! I knew he felt terrible about it; I felt even worse, because I could have figured out what Yumi was about to do, but someone hit me!

As I started to bow my head forward, feeling even more ashamed of the whole thing than Jeremie, Georgina walked over to me and put her arms around me.

“Don’t worry about him,” she soothed, pulling me into a warm, comforting embrace. “I can understand he’s worried, but don’t let it bother you. Maybe it won’t happen for a few days. It’s best not to think about it.”

“R-right…” I nodded into her shoulder. “It's a bit scary at times.”

“I don’t have any personal experience, but I can try to understand,” Georgina added.

I blinked. “I really don't want Jeremie to die. He’s fourteen years old, and he has his whole life ahead of him.”

“We don’t want him to die, either,” Yumi agreed, placing her hand upon my shoulder. “You said that I was about to do something after he shot out of the van? Maybe I’ll figure out what that was when the time comes?”

“Maybe,” I nodded.

“Do we have any chains or anything like that?” Patrick tried to theorize how Yumi might save Jeremie. “Maybe you decide to throw a really long chain out the side door, for Jeremie to grab onto.”

“Like a female Ghost Rider?” I scoffed. “As if.”

“Marvel Comics jokes aside, I don’t think they have a chain _that_ long,” Kaitlyn brought him down to Earth. “Besides, why on Earth would Jeb, Ari, and Georgina carry that with them, anyway?”

However, Sister started to think the conversation had gone on far enough. “Why don’t we think about something else? My poor sister’s too overburdened with this. We should think about all the fun we’re gonna have, at each one of the stops we’re gonna make!”

“Yeah!” Odd and Kiwi agreed.

“You’re right, Sissi,” Yumi thirded the motion, gaining a grin of her own. “Where is our first stop, anyway?”

“I think we were gonna stop somewhere in New Mexico,” Hunter replied, walking back toward Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, William, Yumi, Patrick, Kaitlyn, and I, after putting another suitcase into the back of the van. “I want to say someplace like ‘Las Cruces,’ but I don’t remember, exactly.”

“I think Las Cruces is what we said,” Kaitlyn smiled.

“That’s exactly where we said we were headed first,” Jeb filled in the remaining blanks. “And I think you might be happy to know that there’s a good nearby hotel that has a spa, as well.”

“Perfect!” Sister’s face lit up at that mention. “What sort of budget will we have?”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Jeb remarked with a smile for Sister. “All you have to worry about is getting pampered. After everything you twelve have been through, you deserve it. Steam baths, massages, body scrubs, wraps…they even have full-body shampoos. So indulge!”

“Thanks, Jeb. I'm sure my dear sister can use some of the treatments they have,” Sister smiled, looking in my direction.

“And before any of you head out to the spa section,” Georgina added, a warm grin permeating her face, “I’ll make sure to give each and every one of you a soothing, slow, soft, and thorough full-body wipe, as well as a soothing, quiet, and invigorating body rub, when you get back, if you like. The massages and baths will both be taken care of, depending on what you choose.”

“That would be great,” I nodded.

Nearby, Hunter was finally starting to get wise to the fact that nearly all of us could read his thoughts, and he theirs, so instead he chose to lean up against the side of the van, folding his arms with a neutral look on his face as he gazed at the ground. Even if he wasn’t thinking anything, I could tell he would probably be the only one who didn’t like the idea, or would even sit the whole thing out. That kind of bugged me, in a way; spa trips were supposed to be fun. Get massaged, get a body scrub… and with Georgina giving all of us a soothing full-body wipe beforehand, and full-body rub afterward, I’d be almost surprised if he did end up saying ‘no’ once we got there. But I’ll bet he heard the words “full-body shampoo” and immediately wanted nothing to do with it. It was a bath, after all, so I understood, even if I didn’t like it. But would Sister let him get away with that?

“So, has everything been packed away?” Dr. Martinez asked.

“Almost!”

We heard a voice coming from the house, moments before Sam immediately ran up, carrying a suitcase of her own, which she soon brought over to the van, and placed it into the back end, closing the doors soon after. “Almost forgot my stuff!”

“Aelita, did you get Mister Pück?” I asked her, worried.

“Of course!” She answered with an air of reassurance, as she withdrew the elf doll from a pocket on her dress. “I thought I would keep him in the front of the van, with us.”

“Excellent,” I smiled.

“Then it looks like that’s everything?” Jeb took one more look through Dr. Martinez’s door, into her house, as if trying to remember if there was anything left to grab. “...seems to be. Alright, then! Load in, everyone!”

I walked in first, finding a seat and buckling up. Aelita and Yumi climbed in next, both finding places that bookended me, and buckling themselves in, just as Ulrich and Odd jumped in, Ulrich sitting next to Yumi, and Odd one seat away from Aelita and across from me. Jeremie soon entered and took the empty seat Odd passed up.

Next was William. He found the seat next to Odd and began to buckle his seatbelt, just as Patrick and Kaitlyn climbed in, sitting in adjacent seats. Sam followed soon after, sitting next to Patrick, Hunter entered after Sam, finding a seat next to her, and then came Sister, who snagged the seat next to Hunter. Finally, Kiwi jumped in, before walking over to Odd, and jumping up into his master’s lap, _mi novio_ welcoming him with open arms.

“I am so excited to go back to Kadic,” I smiled.

“Me, too!” Jeremie agreed with a similar grin. “It’ll be great to see everyone again. Even the factory.”

“I miss seeing Jim,” Kaitlyn said.

“Me, too,” I nodded.

“I can’t wait to get back to our dorm!” Odd added with a big grin. “I loved that old place. A real home for true heroes!”

“We only had Lyoko HQ for a month, Odd,” Ulrich corrected. “It's not exactly old.”

“What kind of a place is that, anyway?” Sam looked over at Odd, an excited, curious grin on her face.

“It's a big dorm room with plenty of beds,” I tried to describe it.

“There’s a bed for every single one of us, except you, William, and Hunter,” Jeremie jumped in, adding to my description. “It also holds my computer, Sissi’s make-up kits and computer, and it has a walk-in closet, where every single one of our outfits is stored.”

“And it was one of the most pleasantly surprising parts of our lives,” I giggled.

Sister soon found my grin to be contagious, partly from her own excitement for what she was about to say. “And soon, it’s gonna have this amazing bathing room, with this nice, big, spacious whirlpool bath, and someone who will be there to wipe, rub, massage, and wash any of us, any time we want! They’ll even dry us, too!”

“And I’m sure that’ll really come in handy,” Jeremie commented, sounding almost as if he thought it would be somewhat enjoyable, yet wasn’t sure how practical it would be.

“And I can't wait to see Milly and Tamiya again,” I beamed. “The last time I talked to one of them, it was in the shower.”

“I bet they’ll be very happy to see you again,” Aelita agreed, smiling warmly. “And so will the teachers, as well.”

“Don't forget about Camille, Cat Girl. I talked to her just last night, and she wants to cuddle you from hearing about that time in the chopper,” Odd pointed out.

“I would love to see her again. She is so sweet,” I sighed contentedly.

“Ohh, that would be so beautiful!” Sister commented, grinning warmly toward me. “After how that happened, you deserve something warm like that.”

“She really helped me that month ago. Camille even stayed after most of the autographs were taken,” I remembered.

“She was a real friend!” _Mi novio_ sported a grin that nearly spanned his entire head. “And you thought you didn’t have very many ‘fans’!”

“It seemed that way at first, then Naomi and so many others came over. I was really but pleasantly shocked to even have that many,” I giggled.

Yumi chuckled a bit, as well. “After the part you’ve played in our battle against XANA, it wouldn’t be fair if you didn’t have nearly as many fans as the rest of us.”

“That was the best thing you guys did for me.”

“I was amazed _I_ had as many fans as I did,” Jeremie commented with a slight chuckle, as he pushed his glasses up past the bridge of his nose. “I thought for sure nobody would be fond of the guy who sits in the background the whole time, and calls the shots. But if I had fans, why wouldn’t we make sure _you_ had fans as well, Cassidy?”

“Good point, but you really did me some good. I was getting quite saddened for a while.”

“We couldn’t let that happen to you,” Aelita reassured me, giving me one of her trademark warm, reassuring smiles. “Everyone else was having fun, and enjoying themselves. And while not all of us could be nearly as happy as Odd, there was no way we were going to let you be down on yourself.”

“Luckily, everyone had soon gotten away from the ‘Cassidy is a weirdo’ club,” I smiled. “I really was scared that they would stay there forever.”

“Why _would_ they?” William offered a poignant question. “Since everyone saw the monster, you’d think they’d be crawling in droves to get your autograph, Cass. You weren’t playing a background role; you were one of the stars. Even when I was under XANA’s control, you were really tearing up the place. They’d have to be _insane_ to still think of you as a weirdo after all that.”

“Bastien had to answer to Sissi and me after he said ‘no’ the first time,” Ulrich agreed.

“Bastien was a bully,” I admitted.

“More like a complete numbskull!” Sister jumped in, folding her arms with a slight look of anger taking over her face. “Can you _believe_ he had the nerve to pick on my poor sister? Who does he think he is?! He’s just jealous that _my_ sister’s psychic!”

 I looked at her, a smile blossoming on my face. “You’re absolutely right.”

“That’s probably all it is,” Kaitlyn agreed, with a nod. “Some jerks just can’t handle it.”

“No, they can’t,” Ulrich agreed.

“And it stops him from getting to know the kind of person you are, too,” Patrick added, growing a smile of his own. “He’s too busy thinking about your psychic powers; he doesn’t see the rest of the puzzle.”

“Besides, once we are back in France, I’m sure they’ll be hailing us as the returning, conquering heroes,” Odd declared, thrusting his fist toward the roof of the van.

“You said it, Odd, Master,” Kiwi grinned. “But I wonder how they’ll adapt to me talking.”

“Ventriloquism, duh!” Sam giggled, resting her chin upon her hands.

“Even they aren’t that thick,” I shook my head. “I don’t know how they will react to us having wings, in fact. Or my pink hair strand.”

“We probably shouldn’t worry about it.” Yumi sent a calming, reassuring smile in my direction. “After they’ve heard about everything we’ve been through, they’ll probably understand, if not better.”

“I hope so, Yumi. I think after we get things straightened out with Dad, we should go to the factory to see what’s going on with the DNA injected into me,” I blinked.

“That’d probably be for the best,” Jeremie admitted, turning his gaze on me. “It’ll also allow us to figure out the extent of the damage the whitecoats caused to all of us. See if there are any other surprises, besides our wings and telepathy.”

“I would be surprised there would be more.” I brushed the braid behind my ear. “I still can’t believe at times that we had an out-of-body experience together.”

“I’m still not sure how to adequately explain that,” Jeremie admitted, looking a bit uncertain. “My original idea was that the bond we all shared enabled us to communicate with each other… but then how would that explain how Sam and Hunter were able to communicate with us, too?”

“What if that had something to do with it,” Aelita began, cooking up a theory of her own, “but what if the sedatives they used had some sort of ingredient? The ones they typically used weren’t to knock you out for more than a half-hour, so what if whatever they put into it, to make it keep you out for longer, made that happen?”

“Well, the fact that it took Sam and I the longest to join you guys,” Hunter jumped in, trying even harder to make sense of that part of our adventure, “had to say something. Everyone else in this van, aside from myself, Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, has been to school at Kadic with you guys, or come into contact with you in some way. I’m the only one that hasn’t. Before the whitecoats and Erasers kidnapped me, I had only seen what you guys had done through the monster. I didn’t even know any of you until that day. I wouldn’t have even _been_ in France if none of that had happened. So that could lead a bit of credibility to the ‘bond’ theory, even though I’m still trying to wrap my own brain around the whole thing.”

“I’m just glad that we were there for each other as entities,” I smiled.

“Well, why wouldn’t we be?” Odd flung another rhetorical question at me.

“Yeah!” William agreed, a giddy smile overtaking the lower part of his face. “Because that was killer! I bet I can fly like that with my own wings, too!”

“When they are fully developed,” Yumi cracked.

That made everyone in the van start laughing, as a look of surprise replaced _mi ex novio’s_ former excitement, almost as if it had caught him off-guard.

“Nice one, Yumi,” Odd complimented between chortles.

“He’s right,” Aelita agreed, calming down. “That was a good call.”

Yumi merely smiled, whether out of modesty, or silent agreement.

I sucked in a cooling and refreshing breath. “It was awesome, Yumi. I don’t know what we’d do without you. Good thing I hinted to Ulrich that I wanted you in the team before you were a Lyoko Warrior.”

Yumi’s grin got bigger when she heard that. “That’s because you already knew, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Plus I didn’t quote that one line when we were creating the Skid for nothing, but now I can modify it: _Nosotros no es sólo seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, o once de nosotros. Nosotros es todos los doce._ ”

Yumi closed her eyes, nodding in agreement. “That’s right. Sam and Hunter, you two will be Lyoko Warriors, too. When we get back to Kadic, we’ll make sure the both of you get scanned, and we might even take you both to Lyoko.”

“Think of it as a virtual grand tour of the place,” Odd quipped with his trademark goofball grin.

Sam and Hunter both looked quite excited to hear that if their faces were any indication. They had already been through a crazy adventure with us, and even Hunter stuck to his guns. I think it was safe to say that we all felt that they had earned their place on our team. We’d really only know once they got to Lyoko, and found themselves face-to-face with a Krab or Tarantula, or even a MegaTank, but from the looks of things, it was certainly going to be interesting. Hopefully, neither of them, especially Sam, would be headstrong about it, like _one_ of our own.

After a few seconds, Jeb climbed into the passenger seat behind Ari, as Georgina assumed the role of driver, once more. Stepping in, Max’s and Ari’s father turned his head to look back at the twelve of us. “Is everyone buckled in?”

I tightened the strap to my seatbelt. “Ready to go, Jeb. And again, thank you for rescuing us from that awful place.”

“Oh, I can’t take all the credit for that,” Jeb replied modestly, while still grinning. “Max and her flock helped me bust you guys out, and Georgina made sure everyone was ready to go. It was a team effort, more than a single person.”

“But we still appreciate everything all of you have done for us, all the same,” Jeremie admitted, giving the man his own smile. “Without you, who knows what sorts of experiments they would have carried out on the twelve of us.”

“And tests.” I felt my internal structure shuddering. “I would hate to go through more mazes.”

Jeb nodded solemnly. “I completely understand. Some of you were given easier tests than others, but I do wish I could have had some sort of oversight, and the ability to change some of them, especially some of yours, and one of Hunter’s.”

“Don’t remind me… That was so scary,” I gulped.

Hunter shivered as well, the effects of the return of a terrible memory. “You’re telling me. But I’m sorry you had to see me like that. They were making so many different noises, and they were just so loud, and coming out of nowhere… I couldn’t really find a way to stop and get my bearings. I even told them to halt the test several times, but they didn’t. And I went into overload.”

“But that’s all in the past, now,” Jeb gave the black-haired boy a reassuring smile, hoping to calm him. “We’ve got so much in front of us. Practically the entire United States is our backyard. If you and Cassidy have ever wanted to see more of your home country, while showing it to your new friends, you’ve never had a better opportunity.”

“Yeah, especially since the last chance got torn up before I could even get it,” I said, looking pointedly at William.

“Hey, how many times do I have to apologize to you for doing that?” _Mi ex novio_ looked a bit upset at me for bringing that back up. “I broke up with you for a stupid reason, and I do stupid things when I’m angry, okay? I’m not happy with myself, either, in case you didn’t know. But now we’re gonna get another free trip so you can forget about the dumb stuff I once did, huh?”

“Sorry, Ex-y. It still is a bitter memory in my mind. And you know how it is with my brain. Once something bad happens, it holds it there,” I sighed.

William cradled his head with his hands. “I hear you. It’s a bitter memory for me, too, and we both have to live with it, probably.”

“And being smuggled here is not what I had in mind when I wanted to show my friends the United States.”

Sensing the mood in the van getting a bit tense, as Georgina turned the key in the ignition, Odd turned to look at me.

“So Cat Girl,” he asked, with a grin on his face, “what do you wanna do, when we get to Las Cruces?”

“Hm… I know I would love a scrub,” I giggled slightly. “That would be nice.”

Yumi found my giggles contagious, as a smile graced her features. “I could go for a massage… maybe even a body shampoo, as well. It sounds almost like a Japanese bath.”

“Plus, dear sister, it looks as though you have broken out a bit on your face. Maybe a nice facial might help,” Sister calmly suggested, hoping to not freak me out by gently explaining her findings.

“Yeah, plus all this stress over being kidnapped… It can’t be good for my complexion or my health,” I sighed. “But thank you, Sister. Besides, we had bigger fish to fry than _mi cara_.”

Georgina pulled the van out of Dr. Martinez’s driveway, as Ulrich looked over at Yumi, Sister, Odd and I. “I could go for a steam bath, and then a massage.”

“Is it pet-friendly, Jeb?” Kiwi asked.

“As far as I know,” Jeb answered, looking a bit unsure, “but I might have to double-check.”

Suddenly, my eyes briefly clouded, showing the sign to the hotel. _My first spark-flash in ages… Wow..._ “Yes, Kiwi! They do allow pets.”

Jeb chuckled, amazed at my ability. “Well, I’ll be. There’s your answer, Kiwi.”

Kiwi giggled. “Well, she had helped me before.”

“Yes, I have,” I grinned.

“That’s right!” Odd wrapped his arms around me, excitedly pulling me into a warm hug. “It’s Cat Girl the Amazing Psychic, to the rescue once again!”

“Better than being a dangerous one, that’s for sure,” Ulrich smiled. “Two visions in a row without an earthquake on either of them.”

My eyes widened, but my grin did not waver. “Odd, what you said in the School…you were right!”

He grinned with his eyes closed. “You see? What did I tell you! Did I get it right, or did I get it right!”

“Yes, you did, Odd,” Jeremie smiled. “I don’t even know how you could have guessed that or if it even _was_ a guess, after all...”

“Well, my first one _was_ followed up by an earthquake that I felt after I came out of my first vision in ages,” I giggled. “I think that it’s valid.”

“Yeah, and it really had all of us going, too,” Samurai admitted, remembering that day quite vividly. “But at least now you can enjoy a good spa trip, with the rest of us. Maybe try a body shampoo, and see if they’re soft like Georgina?”

“Yeah. Something most belated since Sister was going to pay for another one for all of us after a week of being back in Kadic’s classes,” I smiled, reveling.

“Ooh!” Sister quietly squealed, grinning. “Even though we’re probably gonna get pampered more in this month than we ever have, I can still get another trip for all of us, even after we get back to Kadic, and Daddy puts in the whirlpool bath, and hires someone.”

“Yeah, I would love that, maybe Mr. Hayden will be there,” I excitedly said.

Suddenly, nearly everyone just stared at me, blankly, as though they couldn’t understand why I would make such a request. Especially after the whole debacle with the _Cosmos: Future & Formula_ magazine cover.

“What? He’s a good limo driver,” I defended.

Yumi raised an eyebrow. “After that deal with the magazine, we’re just worried there might be something else in his limo that might make you uncomfortable, Cassidy.”

“That magazine was the only thing, Yumi, that made me distressed,” I blinked.

She started to look a slight bit relieved, as she offered another question. “And what if he has something else with him, that’ll make you squirm?”

“Then we’ll hide it from her immediately before she even gets her hands on it,” Odd answered for me. “Besides, we are her friends.”

“And you are _mi novio_ , Odd,” I giggled.

He gave me one of his Cheshire Cat-style grins, complete with closed eyes, while Sister giggled nearby and added, “And I’m your dear sister!”

“Yes, you are. And I am so glad you became _mi hermana_ ,” I smiled, “Sister.”

Her giggle gave way to a big grin, as well. “And you’re the best sister I’ve ever had, Cassidy!”

“You, too, Sister. I’m glad you changed for the better.” Tears of joy welled in my eyes, threatening to spill out. However, I reached into my pocket and fished out one of the handkerchiefs _de la madre de mi novio_ , wiping my eyes with it.

Odd quickly noticed this, as well. “Hey, you’ve still got the handkerchief my mom gave you at the hospital!”

“She told me to keep it, Odd, as she has a lot of them at home,” I giggled. “She is so sweet.”

He nodded in agreement, a warm smile gracing his features. “Yeah… she is. And I love her a lot! Even my sisters, who changed just as much as Sissi did, thanks to the monster!”

“I was surprised to see that your sisters came to the hospital, too.”

“Me, too!” Odd looked pleasantly surprised. “Before the monster, they _never_ cared about me!”

“And I was worried about their opinion of me.”

“You _always_ worry about that! Didn’t you see? If you hadn’t been on that bed, they would’ve given you a group snuggle! They were all worried about _you_ , too!”

“I guess I get too worried at times,” I blushed.

“Don’t worry,” Aelita reassured me, wrapping her arm around my back as she gave me a reassuring smile. “We all do it.”

“You always thought about your father after _that day_ I’d rather not talk about, but I loved it,” I giggled.

“Thanks,” she replied as her smile increased. “I barely knew anything about him then, but after I had learned I was human, and when I found he was still alive on Lyoko, all I could think about was bringing him home to Earth with me.”

“And I am glad that I seemed to have found the way to reunite him with you, with some interest.”

Her eyes widened as her excitement increased, starting to leak into her voice soon after. “You’re right! I didn’t think I would ever see my mother again, and neither Daddy nor I know how we’ll ever be able to thank you for bringing us all together, again!”

“I guess that monster did us some good, even if I won’t be able to understand it,” I blinked, smile unwavering.

“I doubt any of us will,” Jeb commented, looking back at me.

“And I don’t even want to know what would have happened if I hadn’t unleashed that monster, either, Jeb.” I shook my head, grimacing.

Odd quickly tried to change the subject, fearing something terrible coming down the pipeline. “L-let’s not think about that, okay? XANA’s gone...uh, weakened, of course, we got Aelita’s mom and dad back, you’re still with us, Cat Girl… I’d say we did a pretty good job.”

“A _good_ job?!” Kaitlyn was surprised by Odd’s sudden show of modesty, as it was quite unlike him. “Where’s the ‘we did a phenomenal job, thanks in no small part to Odd the Magnificent, and the equally excellent Cat Girl,' Mister Braggart?”

“I am _not_ a braggart!” _Mi novio_ interjected. “That being said, Odd the Magnificent _did_ play a huge part in the weakening of XANA, and subsequent rescue of both Mr. _and_ Mrs. Schaeffer, with the equally impressive help of his glorious sidekick, Cat Girl the Magnificent-in-training!”

A grin sliced through my wincing, slowly bringing in some gut-busting chuckles. “Odd…”

“He’s normal,” Jeremie announced, chortles erupting from his mouth like an active volcano.

“You had to guess?” Even Yumi laughed at that.

“Hey, he sounded weird, okay?!” Kaitlyn threw her arms into the air.

“Odd, being weird? That’ll be the day,” Ulrich chuckled.

“But hey, guys, without him, who would have saved Aelita and Cassidy from the Digital Sea when he realized his mistake about Brynja?” Sam asked.

“If he hadn’t brought Brynja to the factory in the first place,” Jeremie retorted, raising an eyebrow as he turned to look at Sam, “he wouldn’t have had to save Aelita and Cassidy from almost falling into the Digital Sea.”

“But Brynja also made my poor, burdened, dear sister do unrelated math problems out of jealousy, Jeremie, honey.” Sister gestured toward me.

“That was the most hectic day my powers had ever been through.” I shook my head.

“She really threw you for a loop that day,” Jeb recalled, thinking of what he had seen through the monster. “It’s a good thing Sissi got rid of her when she did. Who knows what would’ve happened to the entire school, if she had stayed any longer.”

“She probably would’ve had the whole school confusing ink smudges with rutabagas,” Patrick quipped, a bit of a smile growing on his face.

I cackled at that. “I must’ve had a wet thumb when I made that type of smudge.”

A few of the others chuckled, just as Georgina turned onto a different road, something most of us could barely feel, as we weren’t concentrating on where she was driving.

“I can’t wait to get back home,” Yumi smiled.

“You’re telling us,” Kaitlyn grinned.

“And I can’t wait to ride that cruise liner!” Odd exclaimed, looking as excited as Yumi and Kaitlyn were. “That’s the kind of return heroes like us deserve!”

“We’re bound to get pampered enough times before we get there.” Ulrich sent a slightly mischievous grin toward his original roommate. “I’m sure even Odd the Magnificent can go one day without a massage, full-body wipe, or bath.”

“And I’m sure that my father is going to be glad to see us,” Sister smiled.

“I just hope he doesn’t make us clip our wings,” I fretted. “Don’t want to shear off the beauty of the feathers.”

“Why would he do that?” Aelita interjected, raising an eyebrow. “He’ll know what we went through, and why we have them. He seems like a patient man.”

“True. I guess I’m a bit nervous about nothing as usual,” I blinked.

“Relax, Cat Girl!” Odd grinned at me, reassuringly. “Sure, you worry over nothing a lot, but sometimes you get worried over something that you really should worry about.”

“Yeah? Like what?” I asked, as though to quiz him.

“Remember when XANA made it really cold outside?” Odd recalled the first memory that came to his mind. “You spark-flashed Yumi getting buried under the tree that T.V. knocked over with his car, but you thought it was nothing.”

“That was true, I shouldn’t have been too dismissive about that one, despite it being Yumi under that tree,” I said.

“Originally,” Yumi reminded me, “it _was_ going to be me under that tree, and that’s what the first timeline showed, but when you pushed me out of the way, you changed that.”

“I just couldn’t let you be under there.”

“Even if Einstein did launch a Return to the Past,” Ulrich lamented as if he felt a slight twinge of guilt over what had nearly happened to me, “I still wish we could’ve gotten you out of there.”

“Plus, I was dying…”

“That’s why I’m glad I did launch a return trip just in time,” Jeremie admitted, in such a way as to make Ulrich feel better about his and Yumi’s failures. “None of us were ever in any real danger, that day.”

“Yep. I’m happy to be alive, Jeremie, thanks to you,” I giggled.

“You have always looked out for them, and us as well,” Patrick added, giving his male cousin a warm smile. “You may have one of the most stressful jobs I know of, but you rarely let it get to you.”

“I know he snapped once,” I blinked, “and I got on him and yelled at him. Ugh… I think my bad week was kicking my mood.”

At first, Ulrich’s brows rose to his hairline. “What do you—?” Then they relaxed. “Oh… the neural helmet.”

Jeremie shook his head as if he was trying to rid his mind of a terrible memory. “Don’t worry; it was stupid, anyway. I found something in Franz’s diary about using Returns to the Past to logarithmically increase my intelligence and thought I could use it to further my work on Aelita’s anti-virus, but all it did was make me angry and irritable. Worse still, all my calculations were bugged up, anyway.”

“And I ended up in a royal shouting match with you, Jeremie. I thought the one we had about Aelita would be our last argument, but—”

He looked over at me, with a reassuring smile. “Cassidy, you know as well as I do, that if I had not been under the influence of that helmet, that shouting match would never have happened.”

“And besides, dear sister,” Sister slid over by me, placing her hands upon my shoulders, instantly soothing away the guilt, “friends are going to fight. It’s how those friends react _after_ the fight, that shows what good friends they are.”

“That’s true, I guess I forgot about that,” I giggled, feeling slightly giddy from the erasure of guilt.

Of course, everything Sister, Jeremie and I had just done, still caught Yumi off-guard.

“Hold on, wait a minute…” my geisha friend interjected. “You were feeling bad just a second ago, and now you’re…?”

“Did you forget that she can heal now?” Aelita smiled.

She grinned, even though it looked slightly sheepish. “Yeah… it’s just… I still haven’t gotten used to it, yet. That’s all.”

“I guess there will be a lot of things that we won’t be used to for a while,” I shrugged.

Nearby, Hunter was rubbing his forehead. “This entire adventure has been one crazy thing after another, left and right. We’ve only had a few opportunities to just sit down, relax, and take it all in.”

“Cool, huh?” Odd grinned at him.

He chuckled a bit. “It’s one thing seeing it through the monster… another actually experiencing it for yourself… I’ll get used to it. I know I will. It’s actually been quite interesting.”

“Yes, it is, Hunter,” I giggled.

He then looked up, putting on his best “happy, yet determined” look. “But don’t worry, I have no intention of backing out. I know you guys slowly got into it as well, so it’s only a matter of time for me before everything becomes like second nature.”

“That’s for sure,” Ulrich and Patrick agreed.

“You’ll get it, Hunter.” Yumi gave him a reassuring, comforting smile. “Don’t worry. We’re not gonna let you down.”

“Plus I’d feel horrible if I let you down,” I smiled.

Hunter’s “happy, yet determined” look began to seem more and more genuine, especially after I told him that. Sometimes I could tell he felt like he was afraid the others would think badly of him if he couldn’t keep up, or messed up, whether because of his own ability, or something else, but I knew he really wanted to help out and didn’t want to seem like a third wheel.

“Plus we always have room for one more fighter against XANA, Hunter,” Jeremie reassured.

He grinned even more at that. “Thanks! I would definitely love to help in the fight against XANA, both on the front lines, and with you, once I can show you some of the programs I’ve done in the past, Jeremie.”

“I’m sure you can impress him, Hunter, good buddy,” Odd chuckled.

“Odd’s right,” Jeremie agreed with a smile of his own. “I’ll have a look when we get back to Kadic, and I’m sure you’re worrying too much.”

“You’re probably right.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I’ve seen how you program most of the others’ weapons and vehicles, along with everything else, and I just really enjoyed seeing that, and wanted to do some of that for myself, as well. I’m sure I’ll be a great help, both on and off Lyoko.”

“You’ll figure it out. I have faith in you,” Aelita encouraged, a smile growing on her face.

I think we all felt the same warmth, excitement, and even a little bit of pride, just as Hunter did, at that moment.

“Thanks.” He had a big smile on his face, now. “You’re absolutely right.”

Even Jeb found himself getting in on the action, as he looked back at the black-haired boy. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. You’ve done well so far.”

I nodded. Just like me, he had the tendency to worry too much. He knew we were all incredible friends; he just needed to trust in that, and we knew he would. Sometimes, even I needed to believe in it more, as well.

“They’re right! You’ve already proven yourself, Hunter dear,” Sister added her own blend of encouragement, as well.

He blinked, seeming almost surprised before he hid it behind the grin that still occupied his face. “Oh, cool! That’s great!”

“Plus, you helped my dear sister when you could,” she smiled warmly.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He nodded. “And I’m definitely glad I’ve been able to help you, Cassidy.”

“I’m happy that you did, Hunter,” I giggled.

A few seconds of silence had passed before Odd suddenly got an idea. Turning to the black-haired programmer, he asked with a grin, “Hey Hunter! So, what do you think you’re gonna look like, on Lyoko?”

His gaze hit the roof of the van like he wasn’t expecting that. “Ummm… you know, I’ve actually never thought of that… the Supercomputer gives you an avatar, based on your personality, and your subconscious desires, right?”

“Yep. How it switched Odd’s and my own in the beginning is still a bit of a mystery,” I blinked.

“ _I_ don’t even understand how that happened,” Jeremie lamented, and you could really hear the surprise in his voice. “You were telling us about how you knew Odd was going to be a purple cat, and when I virtualized you for the first time, Odd became a purple ninja, while _you_ became the purple cat.”

“I still remember Ulrich laughing his head off, then I followed suit after discovering that happened,” I giggled.

Ulrich chuckled, remembering that day well. “That was great. After all that build-up, and then _you_ were the cat…”

“But I did manage to swap the avatars back to your original prediction when I upgraded your equipment,” Jeremie continued. “That way, it even agreed with the alternate timeline, where Odd was always a purple cat. Maybe that’s the one you foretold, Cassidy?”

“I don’t know, personally. I still had the cat upgrades, too. It was still a crazy time back then.”

“Well, I couldn’t just radically modify your appearance,” the blond genius pointed out. “If you had to spend extra time, getting reacquainted with your weaponry, who knows what XANA might have done with my polymorphic clone.”

“True. But I didn’t mind being a cat, _unlike somebody I know really well,_ ” I giggled.

Odd pretended to be angry. “Hey! I can be a really _amazing_ cat! They don’t call me ‘Odd the Magnificent Ninja Cat Boy’ for nothing! I’ve even saved you dozens of times, Cat Girl!”

“Definitely saved me so many times, Ninja-Cat-Boy.” I reached for him and pulled his head to my lips, kissing his forehead.

He chuckled as his skin met my lips, and as I let him pull away, he glanced over at Jeremie. “You see, Einstein? _That’s_ how you do a forehead kiss!”

In reply, the blond genius immediately blushed. “Hey, I was overexcited, okay?! You had just given me an incredible loophole! I couldn’t think straight!”

“Don’t fight in the van, guys, okay?” Ari asked. “Georgina needs to concentrate.”

 _Mi novio_ quickly adopted a sheepish grin, along with a slightly nervous giggle, which he aimed at the wolfish boy. “Sorry, Ari.”

Jeremie lowered his voice, slightly, as the redness slowly faded from his cheeks. “Besides, we might have been stuck in the hospital for a longer period of time, if you hadn’t given us that idea.”

“Yeah, plus Cassidy had full control over her legs again,” he pointed out.

“If it weren’t for the nurses and my friends, I’d probably be wobbling all over the place and falling over, breaking my legs and extending my hospital stay,” I noted.

“That was a wonderful hospital,” Sister added, grinning happily. “Everyone there was so nice… aside from our little fight, that is.”

“Yeah,” Yumi agreed, smiling calmly. ”They took really good care of us. They helped all of us to walk again, after being bedridden for a few weeks, and even after you woke up, Cassidy, they were always gentle.”

“I was more impressed by the fight to keep me alive. They recorded the fight on a writable DVD, and I watched it sometimes before the kidnapping happened. I mean, Sister was furious!” I smiled excitedly. “Then Jeremie decided to go into the fray! I was totally ecstatic.”

“You should’ve seen Yumi, Cat Girl!” Odd started to grin, just from thinking about it. “There were feet flying all over the place! One of the security guards was stopping Patrick and Kaitlyn, but then she flew in, and knocked him over! He didn’t even see it coming!”

“I saw that. She was one of the strongest out there,” I giggled. “I’d say Jeremie gave a good effort, even if it ended up, um—”

“It’s okay, Cassidy.” He looked at me, apologetically. “I know I’m not a very powerful fighter. There’s a reason I sit at the Supercomputer, while the nine of you are on Lyoko.”

“It’s okay, Jeremie. It was sweet of you to rush out when you did. The placement you guys did was really impressive.”

“You can thank Patrick for that,” Ulrich admitted, gesturing to the boy in the black leather jacket. “He came up with the idea.”

“For the placement for the fight?! I know that Patrick drew up the plans for the barricade, and everyone helped build it, but he did that?!” I asked, slightly unsure of what he meant by that.

“Uhh… uh…” He immediately started to backpedal, and I realized he probably hadn’t understood my statement, the first time. “Actually, it was, uh… I think, uh… Jeremie helped us with that.”

“Ah. I just thought it was interesting that Odd was closest to Aelita and me when he also had some fight training, then Jeremie was slightly in front of him,” I smiled.

“He wanted to be there,” Jeremie replied with a similar grin. “He wanted to see when you woke up, so he could tell everyone else.”

“I wanted to be the first thing your pretty little eyes saw when they opened again!” Odd added with a big grin.

Suddenly, Aelita started to look a bit uncertain.

“But… before we all started fighting,” she began, almost as if she was worried about what anyone, or even I, was going to say, “I was sure I could feel tiny little… twitches coming from your hand, Cassidy. At first, I thought it was my own hand, but then I felt a tightening sensation around it… and then your eyes moved, signaling for me to yell for Dr. Chantal.”

“I guess I was becoming aware again. I just didn’t realize it.”

“Well, you were in a coma for three months, or so I heard,” Jeb commented. “Your body was probably taking longer than usual to fully come out of that.”

“Not to mention your motor functions took a month to return to normal as well,” Jeremie added.

“That’s right. I remember the party you threw me in celebration. For a while, I thought you got bored, Einstein,” I giggled.

“We were just really glad to have you back.” Jeremie smiled, and I could almost see a little blush tinting his cheeks. “We wanted to make you feel better about not being able to walk at first, so we celebrated those little milestones as you got better.”

“It still was a good cake, I have to admit,” I grinned.

“You’re right,” Patrick agreed, a similar smile overtaking the lower part of his face. “It reminded me of Angel Food Cake, my favorite.”

“I love that flavor, too. So spongy and moist…” My mouth watered from remembering the last time I had it.

“I’m more of a Devil’s Food kind of guy,” Ulrich interjected. “Or anything with mint in it.”

That did it. I gulped my saliva and shuddered at the thought. “Mint’s okay for you, but I don’t think it’s appealing.”

“Yeah, it’s not bad.” Kaitlyn was next to jump in. “But what about lemon?”

“Oh, c’mon!” Odd interjected, playfully waving his hand dismissively. “You’ve gotta have chocolate! If it weren’t for the frosting, lemon cake would make you pucker your lips!”

“I don’t like lemons at all. I tried it once, and I ended up putting the fruit slice in the toilet.” I trembled more.

“How about red velvet?” Yumi asked, looking somewhat apologetic in my direction. “I think that’s delicious.”

“I _love_ red velvet,” I smiled again, giggling happily. “It’s so good…”

She grinned, closing her eyes. “It is. My mother always makes a red velvet cake for my birthday. It’s incredible.”

Odd looked indifferent. “Eh, red velvet cake isn’t _too_ bad… but there’s not enough chocolate. Now, _double_ chocolate… _there’s_ a good cake!”

The thought of that made my mouth water… no, it made my mouth _gush._ I was about to turn into a human waterfall, just from the idea of double chocolate cake.

“I think we’re overstimulating her taste buds,” Ulrich chuckled.

“Now she’s probably going to want a double chocolate cake for dessert when we stop at our first hotel,” Jeremie quipped with a slight chuckle of his own.

“Shouldn’t we do something, cuz?” Kaitlyn asked.

“Maybe you’re right…” Jeremie cupped his right hand around his lower jaw, before turning to look at me, his hand returning to its position at his side. “Hey Cassidy, Georgina wants to make a Devil’s Food cake with mint frosting, just for Ulrich. She was wondering if you wanted some.”

That shoved a cork into the waterworks, drying up the well. “Ugh… no! Ulrich can have it all to himself.”

Jeremie grinned sheepishly at me. “Don’t worry, Georgina’s not going to do that. If anything, she’d probably make another white cake, since those are the ones you like.”

“Yeah, that was a good flavor.”

Just as I thought of the cake that we ate, the last thing we had done at Kadic before the whitecoats and Erasers abducted us, I happened to glance over at Aelita. She had her eyes closed and a slightly worried look on her face, and I could tell something was really bugging her, even if she was trying to hide it.

“Are you okay, Aelita?” I asked.

At this, her eyes popped open with a start, almost as if I had caught her off-guard. “Huh?”

Her eyes soon returned to normal size, as she calmed down. “I was just, uh… thinking about something. That’s all.”

“You seem worried about something, Princess,” Odd noted. “Is something wrong?”

She glanced over at _mi novio_ , finding it harder to hide her worry. “Um… I was starting to think about… Cassidy’s vision… and if Georgina planned to pull onto a highway, between here and Las Cruces…”

Just when I thought we had tried to keep that out of my mind... now Aelita wasn’t the only one who was worried about that. “I re-really don’t w-want J-Jeremie to…”

Yumi was a bit more confident, as she glanced over at me with a calm, reassuring look on her face and a similar tone of voice. “Yes, but what if this isn’t that highway? What if it doesn’t happen, until we’re halfway across the country if it even happens at all?”

Aelita tried to smile, as she glanced over at Yumi. “Maybe you’re right… it could really be any highway we drive on. After all, the decorations you mentioned seemed like it was more in the desert areas, like somewhere in New Mexico, Cassidy?”

“It could be. I mean, my visions can be vague with a few tiny details, but the major ones are bright,” I considered. “Heck, I remember that one time in the past where I had a vision of the Schyphozoa attacking for the last time. It didn’t show me much at first, just Aelita running away and then trying to defend herself with her Energy Fields.”

“That’s right.” Aelita blinked, remembering that day quite well. “Your vision also didn’t tell you that you would be possessed as well and that we would fight against Ulrich in perfect lockstep.”

“One of the jellyfish slapped my weapons away. Jeremie didn’t exactly give me a Percy Jackson-style pen-sword where my weapons automatically come back from the dead,” I giggled. “It would have helped me, too. When I saw that fight in the assembly, I was impressed. I think I was fighting Ulrich’s clone. I am still ticked that XANA didn’t give me my weapons back.”

“Well, you seemed to do pretty well with one of my sabers,” Ulrich added, folding his arms with a slight grin on his face. “Even if you were under XANA’s control at the time.”

“I did pretty well, didn’t I, even though I tried to use a sword the time Jeremie found the key to materialization, only to get possessed by Aelita’s father, who I had a vague idea at the time,” I blinked.

“I still don’t understand how he was able to do that.” Jeremie was confused. “And why only you, and not his own daughter?”

“I know, right, Einstein? He possessed me three times, and I thought I heard his voice when Brynja came to town, and he later confirmed that it was his. The only theory I could come up with was that I was to be her guardian angel when I came to town, but I know that Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and even Sister share the role of bodyguard, just as well,” I blinked.

“And he couldn’t possibly have foreseen your arrival,” Einstein argued. “He doesn’t have any psychic abilities, let alone clairvoyance, like you.”

“I wish I could tell you, Jeremie, but I do agree that he couldn’t have seen me coming. I should have asked that in the hospital, too. I got a small fraction of my questions answered so far,” I moaned.

“You’ll still get your chance,” Aelita smiled at me, reassuringly. “Once we’re back in France, I’m sure you’ll be able to ask him as many questions as you want.”

“I’m glad that I will. If it weren’t for the monster, I guess I wouldn’t know what I do now,” I smiled.

“We’d probably go back to our regular lives at Kadic,” Ulrich suggested, about as clueless as I was, “at least until XANA reared his ugly head, again.”

“He would have sent out the Kolossus at us again, and Yumi would have um… ‘bowed down’ to XANA, to defend…”

“Cassidy! You’re doing _the exact opposite_ of relaxing again,” Kaitlyn scolded. “Take a deep breath.”

I took a deep lungful of air, held it for a few seconds, and slowly released it longer than the inhale. “Sorry, Kaitlyn. I can’t help but remember my past visions at times. Memory is like a steel trap with some stuff.”

“Besides, I think you’re over-exaggerating, Cat Girl,” Odd jumped in, glancing over at me. “We weakened XANA, remember? He’s nowhere near powerful enough to send the Kolossus after us; he probably couldn’t even materialize a Kankrelat.”

“I meant if I hadn’t unleashed the monster almost half a year ago, _Novio_ ,” I giggled.

“Either way, we would have weakened him, just like we did,” William added, feeling quite confident.

Before I had the chance to rebuke him, I felt the van drive over a bump, distracting me momentarily as everyone else in the van shook slightly. It was then that I could feel the speed of the van, and my vision immediately flashed in front of my mind’s eye. We were going faster, and my nerves immediately started to yell at me, ‘we’re on a highway! We’re on a highway!’

I only hoped it wasn’t _that_ highway…

We drove over several more bumps, some shaking everyone slightly, while others had more of a noticeable feel. My eyes suddenly darted to the side door, almost as if I was expecting it to suddenly slide open, just like in my vision. Jeremie’s hand was placed precariously on the handle, not as if he wanted to open it, but just as a place to rest it. This was already beginning to scare me even more; I hadn’t even seen how he got thrown out, and now I was hoping against hope that he hadn’t accidentally opened the door, himself…

One more bump. Then another. Each one seemed to be bigger than the last, the inside of the van seeming like it was going through a mini earthquake. Finally, Georgina inadvertently drove over one big bump…

The entire van shook…

_AND THE SIDE DOOR FLEW OPEN!_

Immediately, my nerves went into overdrive, nearly consuming my entire being in the process. In the time span of a few seconds, the twelve of us saw Jeremie somehow go flying out of his seat, with the next successive bump, and while in midair, the vacuum effect from the air outside the van, blowing past the opening, where the side door normally sat, pulled him outside like a gigantic hand. The twelve of us screamed his name in near-perfect unison.

He was gone… _JEREMIE BELPOIS WAS GONE!_

To tell you that to witness one of my visions coming true in real life is scary would be the understatement of the _metaphysical half-decade!_


	16. The Rescue and the Aftermath

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do own our own OC’s and the plot.**

I felt as though I was going to have a heart attack. This was bad. Michael and Cadence were gonna kill me, and then Mark, Katie, Hector, and Beatrice were going to pick me off one piece at a time. What’s worse is that they’d all be heartbroken. I couldn’t breathe.

And all that screaming we were doing in the backseat finally got Georgina and Jeb’s attention, the two’s eyes widening in fear and worry, before she slowly pulled the van off to the side of the highway, turning on the emergency flashers as she did so.

I was so out of my mind with fear and worry that I couldn’t feel the car coming to a stop, and pulling over. All I could think about was Jeremie. The scene of him being shot out of the side door by the wind continued playing in my mind, over and over again, as if my brain was tormenting me with it. All I wanted to know was where he went!

With the car now stopped, Jeb whirled around, his face and voice showing nearly as much worry as we collectively felt in the backseat. “What happened?! What’s going on?!”

I couldn’t speak, my speech clogging my throat. However, my hands revved into action, making various and rapid motions, +Jeremie shot out of the van!+

Jeb, for his part, could barely make heads or tails of my gestures. “Timmy fell down the well, and broke his solar plexus, Lassie?”

Had I not been as worried sick as I was, I probably would have facepalmed at that. Thankfully, however, _mi novio_ was actually able to talk.

“Einstein just went flying out the side door!” he cried out in fear, his eyes opened wide.

+Yes! That!+

“WHAT?!” Jeb immediately threw the passenger door open, unbuckled himself in the time span of a few milliseconds, and started running back, along the side of the road, trying to see if he could find Jeremie.

The rest of us soon followed, throwing off our seatbelts and leaping out of the still-opened side door, following after Jeb.

“MAX!” William yelled.

“ON IT!” she replied, shooting down past us, instinctively knowing what had happened, and what she had to do.

Of course, no sooner had Max barreled down toward Jeremie as he continued to fall, the side door having flown open while we were running across a bumpy bridge, then something really amazing happened. And if I hadn’t been as beside myself with fear as I was, I probably wouldn’t have believed my own eyes.

Max continued zooming toward Einstein, executing a move I’d only ever seen Odd do with his overboard on Lyoko when the bird-winged girl noticed something fascinating… Jeremie had stopped falling.

What’s more, he was now floating. Upward. Mysteriously.

Even the blond genius himself was amazed at what was going on. The look of fear that had gripped his face as he fell, fearing that his life was about to end, had been replaced with a wide-eyed expression of immense surprise, as even Max slowed her descent, wondering what exactly she was looking at.

Odd turned his attention toward me, noticing something incredibly scary. “Oh, no, look at Cat Girl.”

In all the fear-ridden stupor, to see Einstein slowly float upward sent powerful waves of relief through my system. So powerful that I felt myself pitch backward, as though someone shot my forehead with a rubber bullet, and my vision blur and stir to black.

\---

A good amount of time had passed before I finally opened my eyes again, to feel a strange, wet sensation against my forehead. It turned out to be none other than Odd, gently patting it with a wet washcloth. His eyes widened, and a grin slowly overtook his face, when he saw my eyes open.

“You’re okay, Cat Girl…”

Of course, panic set in as soon as he said that. “Where’s Jeremie?!”

And while I was still busy freaking out, _mi novio’s_ voice was calm and gentle, as he tried to get me to relax. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. He’s okay, and he’s here with us. While you were having a date with the seat cushions, Georgina brought us to a rest stop. Princess hasn’t let go of him at all since we all got back into the van.”

With that, I slowly sat up, to see if I could see Jeremie, hoping the blond genius was unharmed and found Georgina gently checking everyone else over, to make sure nothing crazy had happened to them, emotionally or physically. She was looking at their arms, their sides, their backs, their bellies, and their faces, before moving onto Jeremie, who only had a few scratches on his arms and face.

As I watched, Jeb happened to walk over toward the van, delighted to see that I had come to.

“There’s our sleeping beauty,” he joked as he crawled in, and over to me. “How are you feeling, Cassidy?”

At first, my mental shield went up but seeing his kind eyes slowly lowered my defenses. “Absolutely terrified and traumatized!” I whimpered, tears welling in my eyes.

I felt Odd take me up in his warm arms, as a calming, reassuring, understanding look took hold of Jeb’s features.

“I understand,” he soothed, watching _mi novio_ pull me into a warm, comforting snuggle. “But Jeremie’s fine. He’s got a few scratches on him, but he’s still himself. Georgina’s tending to his wounds right now, and you can go see him when you feel you’re up to it.”

This helped me to relax a bit more quickly, so Odd didn’t keep me in his warm embrace for very long. Soon, he watched me climb out of the van, speed over toward Georgina and Jeremie at nearly the speed of sound, knock Einstein over, and pull him into the tightest hug I could muster, surprising both the blond genius and the former whitecoat.

“Cassidy, it’s okay,” Ulrich, who was sitting nearby, soothed, trying not to chuckle. “Jeremie’s fine.”

Of course, his words went in one ear, and right back out the other again. I really didn’t care; I was just phenomenally overjoyed poor Einstein hadn’t fallen to his doom, that I couldn’t bring myself to let him out of my sight, let alone my grip. Even Jeremie seemed slightly happy to see me.

“Cassidy, I’m…” His voice was strained, but I could tell he was happy, “glad to see you…too… But could you let me breathe…please?”

I gently loosened my grip, but still kept him into my embrace, not even wanting to let go. “ _L-lo siento, Sr. Einstein…_ ”

He took a deep breath, before finally wrapping his own arms around me, seeing as I probably wasn’t going to let him up, anytime during this century. “It’s okay… I’m just glad to still be alive… But if my wings weren’t fully developed enough to be able to carry me, how did I mysteriously levitate up into Max’s arms?”

My eyes widened, moving my head slightly to look into his face. “What?!”

“As I fell, I had closed my eyes, fearing that I was going to hit the ground and die, instantly. But as I was falling, I suddenly felt myself slow to a halt, and slowly begin to levitate upward. At first, I couldn’t believe what was going on, and when I opened my eyes and saw Max flying down toward me, I could see the look on her face gave me the impression that something strange had happened. I know it couldn’t have been my wings, as they still hadn’t grown enough for me to be able to fly, but… I couldn’t explain what was going on, and neither could Max… It was as if I just…floated up to her.”

Slowly, I noticed Yumi, sitting alone for the moment, out of the corner of my eye, but something was a little strange. Some dandelions were floating in the air near her, almost arranging themselves into a weird pattern. _Wait…are my eyes playing tricks on me?_

For her part, Yumi seemed almost oblivious to what the flowers were doing. Her eyes were closed, her arms were folded, and she appeared to be hunched over as if she was incredibly confused, or something else. It wasn’t until she heard my thoughts that she snapped out of whatever mood she was in.

_Why? What do you think you—wait a minute… Cassidy, is that you?!_

At this, she suddenly jolted upward, moments before the dandelions all mysteriously floated to the ground, near her. Her eyes quickly scanned the surrounding area, before stumbling upon me, as I laid atop Jeremie, arms wrapped around him, and a smile slowly grew upon her face.

“Cassidy, you’re awake! That’s great!” She stood up and walked over to me. “I hope you’re gonna let Jeremie stand up, soon.”

Still holding onto the resident genius, I pulled him to his feet, keeping a firm grip on him. “There.”

“He’s as happy to be alive,” Yumi continued, gently dusting Jeremie off as much as she could with me having him in a cling, “as you are to have him alive. You should’ve seen Aelita, earlier. She was doing almost the same thing you were, just now.”

“Speaking of, where is she?” I asked, looking around me from the front.

That’s when I heard a soothing, gentle, feminine voice behind me. “I’m right here, Cassidy. And I’m glad to see you’re awake.”

“Well, when you are scared to the point of tearing every single follicle of hair out of your head, you end up fainting in relief,” I giggled, keeping my grip tight on him. “I know you two love each other and all, but I’m still scared as hell, so I’m gonna hold onto Jeremie for a while.”

The two geniuses shared a blush. Even though everyone in our group knew it was true, especially since they formally became boyfriend and girlfriend at some point between the assembly and XANA’s weakening, the mention still had that effect on them, like an old habit that hadn’t d—er, went away.

With his free hand, Jeremie gave the back of his head a gentle scratch. “Well… seeing as nearly everyone else, except Ulrich, Patrick, and William, have had a chance to snuggle, or even squeeze me, I guess it’s only fair that you have a chance, too.”

“That’s right.” Aelita nodded with a smile on her face, without a single trace of jealousy, or anger. “Besides, I understand completely. After Max got him back onto the bridge, I couldn’t let go of him, either. It was only when Georgina wanted to check him and I over that I finally did.”

“I—” I panted slightly, still feeling shaky.

I soon felt a hand gently, slowly, and soothingly rub my back, trying to calm me down. Looking over, I noticed it was coming from Yumi, who had a calming, disarming smile on her face. “It’s okay, Cassidy. Jeremie’s not going anywhere. And neither are we until everyone’s calmed down.”

I nodded, slowly relaxing, but keeping Jeremie in my arms. “I swear, Einstein! If—” My mind forced my words to stop. I couldn’t let myself get angry at him. He wasn’t in control of the situation, and I knew that. However, that didn’t stop the tears welling in my eyes, poised to overflow like a waterfall. “I wouldn’t have forgiven myself…”

This time, Jeremie wrapped his own arms around me once more and added his own soft, soothing back rubs to the one Yumi was giving me.

“Cassidy…” He began, speaking in a calmer voice, “if something had…happened to me…the last thing I would want you to do…is blame yourself. I know everyone else…would have been doing the same thing…but it wouldn’t have been anyone’s fault…except mine. I was the one who had my hand on the door handle… I wasn’t trying to open it; I just wanted to rest my hand there… Just because you saw that in your vision…doesn’t mean it’s automatically your fault if it comes true… Yumi, Kaitlyn, and Aelita are right… You really need to stop blaming yourself for everything…”

I then felt a soft hand gently caress my sides through my shirt, and almost instantly, I felt some of the self-inflicted guilt begin to vanish. This alone immediately told me who it was.

“They’re right, and you know it.” It was Sister, who spoke in a very calm, soothing, disarming voice, as she softly rubbed my sides. “I don’t like it when you do this to yourself, dear sister… we all felt terrible about what happened to Jeremie… but we can’t blame ourselves…and look, he’s alive, too! So let’s just relax, and be glad he’s still here with us, okay?”

I nodded, my mouth slowly turned upward. “I’m glad that he’s alive, Sister. It scared me so much that when my relief tore through, I guess my body couldn’t take it.”

“Don’t worry, it’s okay.” Her soothing voice continued. “Both him and you are okay, now. I’ve given everyone a hug, and a soft, gentle rub, and they all feel better, as well. I even had to snuggle Hunter, as he looked like he was about to lose it after you fainted.”

“And she’s done an excellent job as well,” Georgina jumped in, her voice warm and encouraging. “She stopped him from overloading and everything.”

And speaking of all things good; the boy in question happened to come walking over toward us, also looking quite relieved that I was okay, as well.

“Hey, Cassidy!” He said, somewhat excitedly. Sister was right; you could barely tell he nearly had an overload. “I’m glad to see you’re doing better, and I see you found out Jeremie’s doing great, as well.”

“And now that you’re feeling better,” Georgina was next to speak, “would you mind if I checked you over, to make sure you haven’t gotten any scratches?”

“That would sound great, Georgina,” Jeremie smiled.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

So that’s what she did, after having me separate from Einstein for the check-over. A quick lift of my shirt part way showed absolutely nothing of the sort on my belly or lower back, and my upper back was all right as well. The lower parts of my legs were also fine, as was my neck and shoulders. However, there were a couple tiny little scratches on my arms, but nothing too crazy; in fact, they weren’t even bleeding. With that, Georgina was certain I was just fine.

“You look good to me, Cassidy,” she smiled, as she finished checking my left arm. “Just a few tiny scratches, but nothing too crazy. Those will go away on their own.”

“That’s great,” I beamed, reaching over and reeling Jeremie back into my embrace.

“Cassidy…” Einstein had a slightly nervous grin on his face, yet spoke calmly and politely. “Just how long do you plan on using me as your teddy bear?”

“Considering that we nearly lost you a few moments ago, it might take a while,” Yumi giggled. “After recovering from William suddenly using her nickname against her, she didn’t let go of me for a day.”

Jeremie let out a slightly uneasy chuckle, as well, his face unchanging. “Well, I… guess I could get used to it, for now.”

“Hey, at least she’s not yelling at you, Einstein,” Kiwi quipped.

He looked down at Odd’s diggity-dog. “Yeah… I guess you’re right. After all, it could be worse.”

“She could slap you in the face and scream worse profanity,” Kaitlyn giggled.

That actually made Jeremie’s uneasy smile slightly worse, as a nervous chuckle squeaked through his clenched teeth. “Yeah… that would definitely be worse.”

“But I wouldn’t dare slap Einstein, Kaitlyn. _Uno_ , I don’t think he’d like me doing that, _y dos_ , it’s not in my nature,” I smiled.

“And thank heavens for that,” Jeremie replied with a bit of relief. “I’m glad you’re not that kind of girl. You’re much more understanding than that.”

“Yep. Plus I’ve seen the bruises on Odd’s face when Magali and Claire both slapped him after he went steady on both of them without either of them knowing. I don’t think it’d look good on you.” I shuddered slightly, my grip tightening a small micron.

Even Einstein grimaced at that thought, shivering a tiny bit at nearly the same time I did. “And I’ve seen the kind of force you put behind those kinds of attacks. I’d rather not have to deal with that, either.”

“Trust me, you’ve done nothing to make me do that to you. I mean, Odd tried to wake you up with that method,” I smiled.

He rubbed the back of his head with a free hand, remembering what the monster had shown him. “Even that was painful. I’m just glad I woke up after the tenth slap. Otherwise, I probably would’ve had a sizable bruise on my cheek.”

“And I watched that the second time.” Yumi shook her head.

“I was amazed at what had happened to the two of you.” Jeremie shuddered, thinking about the crows XANA had possessed, and how they had originally pecked at Yumi, but targeted me the second time around. “First Yumi, and then Cassidy. I didn’t like to hear about it the first time, but actually seeing it for myself… I never want that to happen to either of you, ever.”

“Trust me, that attack was horrible, but at least Johnny had helped us,” I smiled.

That was when Odd came walking over. “So, Einstein’s become your personal teddy bear, too, huh, Cat Girl?”

“Looks like it,” Einstein sighed a bit, relieved that _mi novio_ came in at the nick of time.

“Don’t worry, Jeremie,” Aelita soothed, walking up to her knight-in-glasses, and giving him a soft, soothing back rub through his brown turtleneck. “Once Cassidy feels better, she’ll let you move around on your own. She’s just worried that she almost lost you, just like me, and everyone else.”

“I feel better that he’s here, but all the same, it was terrifying,” I admitted.

 _Better believe it,_ I heard _mi novio_ think before he spoke. “Maybe Einstein just needed some fresh air, you know? There’s not a lot of room in the back of that van, so he probably felt congested.”

Sister soon walked up to the six of us, her arms folded. “Next time he wants to do that, he should have Georgina pull over, not try to _kill_ himself! HMPH!”

She knew Odd was merely joking, as he usually did to ease tension or to cover up his own fears, pain, and other things, but she was still getting over Jeremie’s near-death experience, just like the rest of us were, so it bounced right off.

I shivered, tightening my grip around Einstein even more, making him grimace.

“Uh… there’s no need to worry about that…” he remarked, trying to contort his face into a sheepish grin. “I’ve… learned my lesson?”

I slightly loosened my grip, still fearful. I could hear Jeremie take a deep breath not long after, the blond slowly relaxing, now that he assumed I wasn’t as tense as I was a few seconds ago.

“And don’t you worry, dear sister. We’re going to make sure he doesn’t sit near that door ever again,” Sister smiled, reaching for my shoulder and giving it a rub. Instantly, part of my trauma had vanished, causing me to relax like someone had flipped a switch in my brain.

I retracted my hands and arms from Jeremie, releasing the genius. “Thanks, Sister.”

Now free from my grip, Einstein turned to face me, adopting a smile nearly instantly. “See, Cassidy? You don’t have to worry one bit. I’m perfectly fine, aside from a few tiny scratches, but that’s nothing Georgina and a few band-aids can’t fix. But as I’m sure we both know, that’s never going to happen again. So cheer up!”

I grinned. “Okay. I just felt so scared. Sure, Aelita or Franz could operate the Supercomputer, but no one is as fast as you are. And yes, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Patrick, William, Sister, Kaitlyn, and I have learned from you, but we—”

All of my praise seemed to have gone straight to Einstein’s cheeks, as he lifted his hands into the air, showing me their palms, with a modest grin on his face. “If something happened to me, I’m sure we’re all in more-than-capable hands. But you don’t have to worry. You know as well as I do that XANA has tried tactics like those on us before, but that hasn’t stopped us.”

“I do, but we’re still miles from Kadic. Heck, I don’t even know where we are at the moment,” I blinked.

“We actually haven’t left California yet, Cassidy, sweetie,” Georgina answered, softly running her fingers through my hair. “In a mile or two, we’ll cross the state line into Arizona, but we’ll only head out when you, Jeremie, and Aelita are entirely sure you’re okay to keep riding.”

“Aelita?” I purred.

My former first roommate blinked, looking a bit surprised to hear her name said in such a way, but quickly tossed the emotion. “I-I’m okay, Georgina. I’m ready to keep going.”

“Jerrrremie?”

Einstein, strangely, found it funny to hear me purr his name. Maybe it was because I was feeling so much better, or that Georgina could relax anyone, no matter how tense they were. “I’m feeling much better as well.”

I looked at her, my braid almost covering my left eye. “Then I feel betterrr, too…”

She smiled warmly at this. “That’s wonderful! I’ll go and tell the others that you’re ready to go, and see if they are, as well. I won’t be long.” Gently pulling her fingers out of my hair, she gave me a soft kiss on my temple, before walking over to find the others.

The smile on my face grew even bigger, as a warm feeling of love completely enveloped me. “She has the magic touch…”

Hunter nodded, sprouting a similar-sized grin as Georgina walked past. “Yeah, she definitely does. She’s such a warm, loving person… So caring, and so gentle. And her body rubs and massages are just amazing… So relaxing.”

In a few seconds, Jeb walked over to join us. He grinned when he noticed the smile on my face.

“How are you feeling, Cassidy?” he decided to ask, anyway. “You look like you’re doing better.”

I brushed the braid behind my ear. “I am, Jeb. Sister helped with some of my emotions.”

Hearing this, Sister grinned, closed her eyes, and folded her arms. “That’s right! I couldn’t let my dear sister feel terrible over what almost happened! All she needed was a soft shoulder rub, and all her worries just went right away!”

“I’m glad you’re using your powers for good, Sissi,” Jeb praised.

Yumi smiled as well, giggling a bit, before turning around. “I think we all are. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go sit over here for a minute until everyone else is ready to go.”

And with that, she walked back over to the bench she was sitting on, when I came out of the van, earlier. It only took her a few seconds, once she had sat down upon it, to close her eyes, and lean her head back. Strangely enough, a few moments after she did this, the dandelions in the grass near the bench she sat on, suddenly started to float into the air, again.

I immediately remembered the same thing happening earlier after I had gotten out of the van, to make Jeremie my personal teddy bear for the day. They were slowly moving around in a random pattern, and when I wondered what was going on in my mind, right after she replied, they fell back to the ground. Either the wind was playing tricks on them, or… could Yumi…?

Keeping my shield raised against Jeremie and most of the others, I thought to my geisha friend, a wider grin spreading across my face, _Yumi… Jeremie... the dandelions… You’re…telekinetic, just like your power on Lyoko._

At first, Yumi didn’t seem to react, almost as if she didn’t believe me.

 _Cassidy, what are you talking about?_ she replied in her mind, her voice sounding upbeat but slightly curious. _We’re not on Lyoko, and I only have telekinesis there. I don’t understand._

 _You saved Jeremie! You are manipulating the flowers into an array of patterns, Yumi,_ I giggled in my mind, not even giving up. _That’s why Jeremie had floated to Max’s arms._

The voice in her mind started to sound even more confused. _But how could_ I _have saved Jeremie? And what do you mean, I’m manipulating the flowers? I’m just sitting here, trying to relax._

_It’s gotta be a type of fear reflex when you saved him. You weren’t thinking, Yumi. And if you open your eyes slightly…you’ll see it. Trust me._

She began to take my word for it, knowing I wasn’t someone to lie about that sort of thing. Slowly her eyes opened, darting all around her, before settling upon the dandelions. Her eyes immediately widened as she saw them moving around. “Huh?!” She called out in shock, as the dandelions gently floated back to the ground.

“See, Yumi?!” I giggled excitedly.

She fixed a skeptical gaze on me, raising an eyebrow in the process. “But how do you know that was me? What if someone else is doing it, and they’re making it look like it’s me?”

“It’s only you, Yumi. I don’t see anyone else doing it!” I felt as giddy as Hiroki in a video game store. “Plus Patrick and William are too far away to even do it.”

Yumi still wasn’t convinced, however. It seemed like she was trying to dodge the reality as much as she could. “It might not even _be_ Patrick or William. It could even be Odd or Kaitlyn…or even Hunter!”

“Nope. Odd’s eyes are open, Kaitlyn has her back turned and is playing with Kiwi right now, and Hunter’s going over to the vending machines. The dandelions were floating over you. It can’t be Jeremie because he was beside me the time I tackle-hugged him.”

Folding her arms, and getting a slight look of anger, it seemed like Yumi still didn’t believe me. “Well, okay, but I still don’t understand why you think it’s me who was doing that.”

I sighed, starting to lose my steam. I had completely forgotten that sometimes Yumi was a bit stubborn in her maturity. “Why don’t you believe me, Yumi? I saw those flowers float above you _twice_. And Jeremie couldn’t have stopped himself on his own. I thought we had a sisterly bond, and I was your Savior.”

She lowered her head, unfolding her arms with a sigh. “Yes… but… I just don’t understand how I could have done that. This isn’t Lyoko. We don’t have special powers on Earth, and how—”

“Yumi Ishiyama! Have you forgotten that _I have powers on Earth_?!” I interrupted, feeling anger overtake my heart.

She quickly looked up, a grimace spreading across her features. I could tell she hadn’t meant it like that, but my reaction, along with the fact that I called her by her full name, was what really struck her. But in a few seconds, she had contorted her face into a sheepish grin and raised her hands up to chest level, her palms facing me. “T-that's not what I meant,” she chuckled nervously. “I-I-I mean… With everything else that’s been going on… I’m just… I’m just… confused! That’s all…”

Something caught my eye. Even though her own were open, the dandelions started floating around again next to her. A grin extinguished the fires of anger that threatened to hurt one of my best, close friends. “Maybe you should look just to your right. Hopefully now, you will believe me.”

Her eyes slowly darted to her right. Seeing the flowers dancing in the air, Yumi gasped as they widened before her hands covered her face.

“ _Yumi, eres uno de_ los _amigos más especiales que he tenido._ ”

Slowly separating her fingers so her eyes could gaze through them, she found the dandelions were still doing their mystical dance in the air, held up only by her telekinesis. Even if she didn’t understand it, even if she wanted to pretend it didn’t exist, it was staring her in the eyes, and she couldn’t avoid it. With a sigh, she pulled her hands away and tried her best to go with it, no matter what she felt.

To further prove this point, she took a dandelion from the air and gently placed it behind my left ear, between my braid and glasses. “And you’re a special friend, too, Cassidy. Sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s okay, Yumi. I’m sorry for getting so miffed.”

As we got to a slight pause, William walked over to us, looking a bit unsure. “I’m going to sit where Jeremie sat. I hope that’s okay with everyone.”

“At least you get the window seat, Ex-y,” I beamed, relieved to hear that Jeremie wouldn’t sit there anymore. “I don’t think it will happen again.”

Next, Georgina came over, with a smile on her face. “I figured it out. The van didn’t lock all the way. It got the other side door, but it didn’t with the one Jeremie shot out of. I’ll make sure it locks before I get into drive.”

“Ah. That’s good that you found out the cause, Georgina,” Yumi grinned.

Even Odd seemed excited about it. “You heard right. Now the van will be even more secure than before.”

“No more people being the bird-kid cannonball,” Max agreed.

“That’ll help!” I nodded.

About a minute or so had passed before Jeb walked back toward us. “Everyone’s ready to go. Let’s load into the van.”

Jeremie walked into the van first, taking the seat Kaitlyn sat in moments before. I took the one _mi novio_ resided, then he slid in next to me. Aelita sat next to her knight-in-glasses and my other side, rubbing our hands. Hunter plopped down in the same place he had before. Yumi and Ulrich sat relatively in the same spot, with Samurai taking my original arrangement. Sam followed in short order, taking the seat where Aelita once sat. Kaitlyn and Patrick rested their rumps next to their cousin. Sister carried Kiwi in and sat next to Odd’s other side. William entered last, sitting in the seat that Einstein did.

We all buckled our seatbelts as Jeb hopped in with Georgina and Ari. “Are you all ready?” he asked.

“Yes, Jeb,” I giggled. “Hopefully this time, we’ll all stay inside, where we belong. I don’t want another accident.”

“Me neither,” Jeremie agreed.

A few seconds after he said that, I felt my foot tap rapidly on the floor of the van. “I’m gonna have to get used to this new sensation…”

Before anyone could react, my eyes clouded in front of me. Instead of something fearful, or at least comedic, it was really happy. In front of Kadic’s gates, the faculty and students gathered around, Franz and Anthea near the front, waving a banner reading: Welcome Home, Lyoko Warriors! Behind them, I could make out the heads of our parents, and several more familiar faces.

Soon, the vision dissipated on its own, leaving behind a smile on my face in its wake. “Kadic will host a Welcome Home party!”

Odd’s face immediately lit up. “Alright! A nice party for the conquering heroes!”

Aelita turned to me, looking both excited and curious. “Did you see who was going to be there?”

“I saw your parents, and everyone else’s by extension, and Jim. I think I saw our band The Subdigitals, but I don’t know if they’d be in Paris by the time we get back. We’re going to be smooth sailing there soon,” I giggled.

And my former first roommate couldn’t help but feel excited, now that she knew part of what was waiting for us, back in France. “It’ll be so wonderful to be back.”

“You know it, Princess,” Odd agreed.

“It’ll be so glorious,” Patrick smiled.

“Yes, it will,” Kaitlyn nodded.

Sister closed her eyes as she grinned happily, having similar thoughts about our impending return as Aelita. “I can’t wait to get back to Kadic, either. Daddy will be so happy, of course.”

“We are still alive and well,” Jeremie beamed.

“They haven’t taken us out, yet,” William chimed in, with a slightly ambitious grin on his face.

“Not even once,” I agreed, a bit determined.

“And when we get back,” Sam added, looking nearly as excited as William, “we’re gonna be even bigger heroes!”

“Yeah!” Odd thrust a fist to the ceiling of the van.

“But I wonder why they invited the Subdigitals?” Ulrich mused, curious about why they had popped up in my vision.

“Maybe they want to throw us a concert. They were worried about us if they did release that press statement about us like France 24 News stated,” I giggled.

“That’s true,” Yumi agreed, with a grin of her own. “They’ll be just as glad to see us, like everyone else.”

“Even Chris was shocked about the abduction,” Jeremie noted.

“Yes, he was,” I said.

“I don’t think any of us were expecting that,” Aelita mused, sounding slightly curious. “I thought that after the concert, that would be it, but to hear Chris say that was shocking.”

“But Aelita, they want us on when we come of age, remember? I mean, sure, you are _technically_ in your 20s, so you could if you wanted to, but Lyoko made aging nonexistent for you,” I explained. “We have a contract that we will sign when we’re ready. Dad still has it, as far as I remember.”

She blinked, realizing I was right. “You’re right. That could be something for us to do after we graduate. Unless we want to go to college, first.”

“The Subdigitals has the tuition for us covered, so if we do go the college route first, then we’ll be okay until after we get that out of the way,” I smiled.

“You should write your own songs, Cat Girl!” Odd jumped in, giggling a bit. “We’ll be okay, until after we get that out of the way! That was totally a rhyme!”

I felt my cheeks heat up, but a giggle leave my throat. “That was pretty cool. But then again, Kadic thinks we rule!”

 _Mi_ _novio_ fell backward into his seat, laughing. “See?! That was perfect!”

“Those _are_ some pretty good lyrics, Cass,” William added to Odd’s praises. “Maybe you could write a few songs for the Subdigitals now before you and Aelita start touring with them.”

“Sometimes, my songwriting skills are somewhat left to be desired. I mean, the last time I wrote a song, I borrowed the rhythm of another song, and the lyrics didn’t make any given sense. Starship did a better job at weaving their magic,” I said modestly.

“Well, of course, you’d have to start somewhere,” Jeremie suggested, interweaving his fingers together. “Even parody is an excellent starting point.”

“True, but I haven’t even written any songs in a long time. I’ve been more focused on longer stories.”

“That’s okay,” Aelita replied, reassuringly. “It was just a thought. Besides, story writing works just as well.”

“Yep. Besides, Jim likes my stories,” I giggled, a sense of relief ricocheting through my system. “I’m still glad that he’s alive.”

Everyone else voiced his or her agreement. Most of us had somewhat fond memories of the burly gym teacher, notably Ulrich and I, but everyone felt better knowing that he was alive and that nothing crazy had happened to him when the whitecoats and Erasers invaded. Even Hunter, despite the fact that he only knew Jim through the monster, felt somewhat better knowing that he would be there when he started officially going to school at Kadic, although he felt quite intimidated by the man.

“I was so happy to hear his voice,” I squealed in happiness, “both in the report and on Sister’s phone.”

Yumi nodded, a smile on her face. “That was great news. It’s just like he said, anyway; ‘it takes a lot more than that to take down your old pal Jimbo.’”

“I guess being abducted by Erasers—minus Ari—and whitecoats—minus Jeb and Georgina—is slightly better than being hunted down by trained-by-birth assassins,” I grinned sheepishly.

“Geez, Cassidy, what _have_ you been watching?!” Ulrich grimaced.

A rosy blush heated my cheeks. “I guess my imagination.”

“Now, I _told_ you that watching those late-night cartoons with Odd wasn’t good for your mental health, Cassidy,” Jeremie gently scolded me, pushing his glasses up over the bridge of his nose. “But it could have been worse; you could have been watching _Hospital of Horrors._ ”

My knees immediately shot to my chest. “Ugh… I don’t like that show, remember, Einstein?!”

He slowly began to grimace, as he started to slightly backpedal. “That’s why I said it _could_ have been worse. I know how much you don’t like that show. It amazes me that Odd thinks as highly of it as he does.”

“Even _Johnny_ watches that show, and he’s younger than all of us.”

Einstein’s face went full-on surprised. “ _What?!_ ”

“Even Johnny watches that show. Do you want me to sign it in ASL?” I blinked.

“No, no, that’s fine,” he replied, closing his eyes and adopting a sheepish grin, as he rubbed the back of his head. “I was just incredibly surprised by that. I guess it must be an acquired taste.”

“Yep. But I didn’t mind having him follow me around,” I giggled.

Ulrich let out a slight, nervous chuckle as I mentioned that. He was sure everyone had to be thinking about why Johnny had followed me around, or even the fact that he followed Yumi around, the first time. He knew everyone knew that he sometimes let his jealousy get the better of him, but after what had happened, he started to get better with it.

“Ulrich, I told you that I hold no grudge against you for doing that,” I smiled, reaching over and patting his shoulder.

Even though I meant well, he still couldn’t help but grimace. “Yeah… uh… you’re right…”

“Ulrich? Why do you feel guilty when I bring that up in a positive light? Is there something I can help with—?” I asked, removing my hand.

He shook his head. “It’s fine.”

“Ulrich, you can tell me. Don’t make me sic Sister on you… She could heal that up in a jiffy,” I giggled slightly.

Now he was waving his hands in front of his chest. “I told you, Cassidy, it’s okay. It was just me being stupid, and we’ve dealt with it already. I don’t need to talk about it, and I don’t need Sissi to make it feel better. It’s done.”

“Oh, but _I_ think you _do_ , Ulrich dear…” A gentle, high-pitched voice, laced with slight ambition, pierced Samurai’s right ear, moments before a soft hand perched itself upon his right shoulder, completely melting away any feelings of guilt he had about that day. Of course, that didn’t stop him from trying to hide this, either. As he felt himself start to feel better, he closed his eyes and leaned his head forward.

“Thank you, Sister. Every time I paint that day in a positive light, he thinks it ruined me,” I smiled.

“This was your plan?!” Patrick asked, feeling a bit surprised.

“Of course. Ulrich’s always felt guilty over this whole ‘Johnny following me’ thing,” I giggled.

“And since Sissi can heal emotional injuries,” Jeremie added with a similar grin on his face, “no matter how much Ulrich thinks he’s gotten over certain things, now we have the power to know for sure.”

“And we can use it to our advantage, Jeremie, honey,” Sister laughed.

“Yep,” I nodded.

However, Ulrich folded his arms, looking displeased, even though he didn’t really have a reason to do it. Apparently, the whole thing just caught him so completely off-guard, he didn’t know how to react.

“I could tell that, like me, he had some guilt in him.”

“At least, with Sissi’s help,” Aelita added, smiling warmly, “now the two of you are truly able to let go of any painful memories like those.”

“Definitely,” I agreed.

As we reached a quiet point in our conversation, Aelita and I happened to look over at Jeremie, who had turned to stare at the floor of the van, as if he was deep in thought. However, it wasn’t like his thoughts were secret, either; all twelve of us knew he was thinking about how he mysteriously floated into Max’s arms. It was so confusing, he had no idea how to explain it.

Using my mental shield like a private messaging system, I directed my thoughts to Yumi, _Would you like to tell him or should I? He’s bound to find out one way or another._

Yumi closed her eyes, her face slightly tensing up. _I guess I should probably tell him… after all, I was the one who saved him, anyway._

Suddenly, a few gasps of surprise erupted from within the van, as everyone’s eyes quickly shot toward her, incredibly surprised by what they had heard in their minds.

Grimacing, my geisha friend took a deep breath, eyes still closed, forgetting her thoughts weren’t exactly secret anymore, without the proper shielding. She slowly opened her eyes, preparing herself to drop the bombshell.

“I guess it’s about time I told everyone… Apparently, I was the one…who saved Jeremie.”

Jeb found this just as surprising as everyone else, his own mind abuzz at the thought. _So Yumi was the one who made Jeremie start floating… I guess those scientists did more to those twelve than I thought, before Max and her flock got there..._

Strangely enough, he had only allowed me to read his thoughts. “It was probably out of a fear reflex. That’s my theory, though,” I blinked.

Jeremie looked over at me. “You’re probably right, Cassidy. How else would she have activated her abilities, if she didn’t even know she had them, in the first place?”

“That would be quite the conundrum. I think out of fear for you, she didn’t think, but started hoping she could somehow save you if Max didn’t,” I started.

Odd smiled. “That’s _fantastic_ , Yumi! You’re now a permanent member of the Daredevil Heroes Club, alongside Cat Girl and Einstein!”

My eyes widened slightly at what he said. “What do you mean by that? I—”

“Even if you don’t think you did,” _mi novio_ jumped in, cutting me off, “you still saved Aelita’s dad. That makes you a permanent member, too, if I ever saw one!”

“That’s right!” Sister agreed with a big grin on her face. “My dear sister’s a big hero, too!”

A blush heated my cheeks as I ducked my head slightly, a sheepish grin slicing through the bottom half of my face. “Uh… Thanks?”

“You know it’s true!” Sister added with a nod.

“And that was wonderful, Yumi,” Ulrich jumped in next, to my relief, slightly changing the subject as he smiled at his _novia_. “Whatever those whitecoats did to us after they gave us our wings really came in handy. I always said your telekinesis thing was really cool.”

An amused smile grew upon her face. “And I still like your _rich vocabulary_ , Ulrich.”

Now Samurai’s cheeks had gained a slight, rosy tint, as his eyes went south. “Um… well, uh… yeah… you’re right.”

Nearby, Hunter was staring at the carpeted floor of the van, still showing some surprise on his face. “Now I’m wondering what all the whitecoats did to us… first the wings, then everyone gets telepathy, Kiwi can talk… and now Yumi’s got telekinesis, just like on Lyoko…”

“It’s a bit obvious that almost nothing happened to me. I still have visions, can read minds, animal and human, and possibly have one-shot powers that come and go,” I said.

Odd placed his hand upon my shoulder, a happy smile upon his features. “Oh, don’t worry about it, Cat Girl. Maybe you’ll get a new power when you’re not expecting it.”

“Maybe. So far, I’m practically normal with an air of mystery. I thought deactivating that weird tower would get rid of my powers. Instead, they stayed,” I blinked.

“You wanted that weird tower on the Old Desert Replika,” Jeremie interjected, turning a confused and surprised gaze in my direction, “to get rid of your psychic powers?”

“No, not that, Einstein. For that week while you were finding out the cause with Franz, I thought of possibilities for what would happen when it would be deactivated. One of them happened to be that. I was more worried that it would do that than ecstatic,” I blushed.

“Well, it _did_ take away a vision of what ended up happening to us, after we were kidnapped,” he reminded me. “So in a sense, it _did_ take something away from you. But at least you didn’t have to worry about fainting, every single time someone else entered the tower, or so much as got close to it.”

“That was weird.” Just as I said that, I heard the locks around the van click. “I still don’t know why that tower was connected to me.”

“Well, given how XANA sometimes seems to have it in for you, personally,” Jeb posed, turning around in his seat to face me, “it probably shouldn’t surprise you. But the way he supposedly just sat back, and let you deactivate the tower, without so much as a Kankrelat challenging you, according to what you’ve told me, _is_ really confusing. But maybe he had bigger plans, at that point?”

“I was locked in the tower, then…” My mind swirled from the memories that followed. It was as if that particular part of my brain had been blocked out, just from the experience, and the Replika’s explosion, afterward.

“It still traumatizes her, Jeb,” Aelita whispered, noting my reaction. “In a way, it bothers all of us.”

Max and Ari’s father grimaced. “I’m sorry I brought that up. Never mind that.”

My arms wrapped tightly around _mi novio_ , and I trembled as I had when I came out of the scanner room alive. In response, he wrapped his own arms around my quivering body, starting to give me a slow, soothing back rub as he embraced me warmly.

“There, there, Cat Girl,” he cooed as he did so, “it’s okay… Jeb didn’t mean to make you remember that. It’s all over, now… You’ll never have to go through with anything like that ever again.”

Backing Odd up, Aelita, Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, William, Sister, Patrick, and Kaitlyn all nodded, voicing their respective agreements at nearly the same time. This helped me to be sure that they wouldn’t let anything like that happen. And I was sure Kiwi, Sam, and Hunter wouldn’t let it happen, either, if they could help it.

Slowly, my mind hit all cylinders as my body finally calmed down. “Thanks, guys…”

Sam adopted an ambitious grin, as she looked over at me. “Besides, if XANA thinks he’s gonna try to pull another one like that on you, he’ll get what’s coming to him!”

“Yes, he will!” Jeremie’s tone darkened. “He hurt you so much psychologically and emotionally that you couldn’t walk for a day.”

“Thank goodness Mommy took her back to the hospital,” Aelita smiled in relief.

“Yeah, thank goodness Dr. Chantal found that my legs recovered before my examination,” I nodded.

“At least they didn’t give you crutches,” Odd jumped in, trying to lighten the mood, “or even a wheelchair… Can you imagine that? You’d be like Professor Xavier’s long-lost daughter!”

“I would hate to imagine how the abduction would go down had I been in crutches or a wheelchair.”

Jeremie shook his head, almost as if the thought nearly gave him a headache. “You’d have to be wheeled around at high-speed, and it probably would have been harder for all of us to get away, because we certainly weren’t going to leave you behind. At least they carried all of us out, as if you weren’t able to walk on your own, that would have been your best bet.”

“And it would be even worse with crutches.”

Now it was Sister’s turn to shake her head, grimacing all the while. “No, that’s a _terrible_ idea! Why don’t we think about something else? After all, we are out of there, all twelve of us can walk just fine, and we don’t have to worry about those stupid, horrible whitecoats ever again!”

“Especially Reilly and Mandy!” Yumi agreed.

Ugh, just the thought of _those_ two…that made me start to shudder, as I slowly curled myself into the fetal position, just from the terrible thoughts that suggestion gave me, and the nightmare about him. I was amazed I didn’t come out from behind the seat belt.

I felt Odd wrap me in his warm embrace once more, snuggling me warmly. “No, no, Cat Girl… we’ll never have to worry about _them_ again, either… don’t worry.”

Gradually, my socked feet meeting the floor, I felt myself relax. “Sor—”

“No, I’m sorry, Cassidy.” Yumi cut me off, looking at me, worriedly. “I should’ve known just mentioning their names would have set you off. I was just glad that we didn’t have to worry about them, especially for your sake.”

“Yeah, since one of them put a shunt in me the first day, and the other is implying that I’m Aelita’s sister,” I shot, the mystery swirling in my mind. “I hope that we get back to the Scanner Room soon. The mystery is still making me confused.”

“Don’t worry,” Jeremie tried to reassure me. “The month will probably pass by quicker than you think. And then we’ll be back at the Academy like nothing ever happened.”

“Yeah, all except for our wings and powers,” Yumi retorted. “Still, the month can’t fly by fast enough.”

“I don’t even know if I’ve suddenly become Aelita’s biological sister, just because a whitecoat put some of her DNA into me,” I blinked. “This mystery is overwhelming me.”

“But how could having her DNA injected into you automatically make you Aelita’s sister?” Jeremie reasoned, trying to make sense of the entire predicament. “First of all, your biological mother is Debra McGuire, not Anthea Schaeffer.  Second, just because you have one tiny little strand of pink hair, that just so happens to be the exact same shade as Aelita’s, and Anthea’s as well doesn’t mean that you have to be related to them. What if the strand of pink hair is the full extent of the DNA injection?”

“In short, Cat Girl,” Odd looked over at me, “translating” for Einstein, “having pink hair doesn’t make you a Schaeffer sibling. Now, if _all_ the hair on your head was pink…”

My mind went berserk, as I heard that. I knew he was only trying to be silly, but just the thought! Oh, I couldn’t stand that thought… I recoiled from that idea and soon found myself in the fetal position, once more. Odd immediately grimaced as he saw this, letting out a fearful whine.

Jeremie glared at Odd. “Nice one, Odd… We got her calmed down for a few minutes…”

“Oh, no…” Odd lamented, before gently pulling me into his warm embrace once more. “I’m sorry, Cat Girl… I… I didn’t mean it like that! I was just trying to be funny! C’mon, don’t freak out, okay? Just relax…”

I wanted to, and I tried my best, but even my brain was starting to give out.  But thankfully, Sister happened to lean over, and softly rub my back, through my shirt, with both of her hands. That was the magic spell I needed, right there.

“There you go, my dear sister…” she cooed. “Just relax for us…”

My feet felt the floor, and I turned my head as my ear leaned into Odd’s chest, hearing his heart beating. “Thanks, Sister…”

“There you go, Cat Girl!” Odd started out sounding happy at first, turning his gaze toward Sister. “And that was great, Sissi! Thanks!”

“He’s right. That really came in handy,” Jeremie added, also sounding and looking grateful that Sister was able to help.

Then Odd’s tone and face fell. “I’m sorry, Cassidy… I was just trying to be funny…”

“It’s okay, but that time in the School still traumatizes me to a certain extent,” I blinked. “I know it does to everyone else, too.”

“You’re right.” I could tell Odd was walking on eggshells, especially since it was twice in a short span of time, that his and the others’ words sent me spiraling. “We all had a bad experience. But that’s all behind us, now. From this point forward, we’re gonna have lots of fun, and get pampered like the real heroes we are!”

“And we will get back to Kadic, too. I miss some of our classmates. I called Milly and Tamiya last night before bed. We cried because we missed each other so much.” My eyes burned, wanting to well with tears again.

Yumi was calm, and reassuring, seeming to understand where I was coming from. “I know how you feel… I miss a few of my classmates, too, like Maetina…”

“Yeah, she was great. She even was concerned for me when I did a little jig after William stomped off,” I whimpered.

My geisha friend nodded. “She knew what had happened between the two of you. She’s a really wonderful friend, and very helpful, too.”

“Plus it was after the fifteenth of September, and I still had residual trauma,” I sobbed.

Once more, Odd pulled me into his warm embrace, slowly and softly rubbing my back and sides, in an attempt to calm me down. At the same time, William leaned over, and softly stroked my leg, as he was too far away to embrace me like Odd did.

Gradually, my sobbing gave way to a sense of calmness. “I still miss Milly and Tamiya.”

“I’m sure we all do,” Jeremie replied, somewhat sympathetically, as I couldn’t really tell how serious he was. “But I’m sure that, when we get back to Kadic, they’ll want to do a big story on us, that will probably make the front page of the _Kadic Herrald_.”

“I think it’ll make more than just the _front page_ ,” I giggled. “They’re still trying to get the first issue done as far as I remember before this happened.”

Ulrich was confused. “You mean, they’re _still_ working on writing a news story about the monster?!”

“We did agree on getting photos and individual and group interviews done. They have so many pictures, they are still getting them developed. I gave them my camera, too. They had almost half of them done before we were kidnapped,” I explained.

“Then won’t the story they’ll want to write, when we tell them what happened,” Aelita began to worry, “be too much for them, all at once?”

“They are making a big book, and they see it as a brilliant challenge. So far, they got the interviews transcribed, they’re nearly there with the photos, and possibly at the end of this month, they’ll start getting it published into copies for Kadic’s students to read,” I smiled. “To them, it’s better than making small tabloid-like articles.”

“I hope they made sure to get my good side,” Odd added, trying not to make it sound like he was complaining, even though most of us knew he was. “If all they got of me was pictures of me running away from the Erasers, that’s not gonna look very good.”

“Odd, I meant what they got from us from the assembly. According to them, they were _dutifully escorted_ by the whitecoats and Erasers to their very first class without complaint. They thought they were their bodyguards for some reason,” I sighed slightly, a bit amazed at how picky _mi novio_ was being, even though I knew it was something I should have expected. But I knew that Milly and Tamiya had gotten better at taking pictures, so the ten of us that were at the assembly were bound to look good, and hopefully good enough for Odd’s picky tastes. But then again, the thought of Erasers and whitecoats trying to play nice and getting the others out of the way so they could focus on us… That alone was enough to give me the chills on a ninety-degree day.

“At least they were unharmed, right?” Yumi asked, sensing my distress.

“They were at Kadic, so that’s more relieving than scary,” I nodded, taking a deep breath. “I was so worried others were kidnapped with us without our knowledge that I asked about the others down the line, like Theo, Magali, or even Maetina, but all were unharmed. I even requested Hiroki, and it turns out that he was safe at Kadic. Holy mackerel, wouldn’t you know the _relief_ I felt when I heard his voice, too.”

I guess my geisha friend assumed there was a bit _too_ much relief, as she soon started giggling, possibly just at the thought of me worrying about her kid brother.

Aelita was smiling as well but was thinking about something else. “It’s weird… you wonder if they had planned it, or just tried to take it as it happened.”

“I think it was more planned. I just accidentally had us play into their hands or claws,” I hypothesized.

“They’d probably had a long time to get ready,” Jeremie added, building on my own theory, “so it would be shocking if their entire mission was played by ear. Still, it’s astounding to think that nobody even thought twice about men in lab coats, or wolf-human hybrids, escorting them to their classes.”

“And how do you explain the fact,” Aelita queried, “that aside from the way they captured us, we weren’t tossed around?”

“I think that the whitecoats thought that we were precious cargo, Aelita,” I blinked, remembering how we ended up with beds, instead of dog cages. “I still feel the pain from the first and second consecutive time they sedated me at times.”

“That could be it,” she replied, staring at the carpeted floor of the van. “Even though I don’t like the fact that we were kidnapped, at least we weren’t bound, gagged, and lined up against a wall. Still, I’d rather not go through any of that, again.”

“I’m so glad that we got away from those whitecoats. Otherwise, I’d kick their asses by this point,” Kaitlyn growled.

“You have a point, Aelita, but they didn’t go that far in the books. Kaitlyn, yes, I would have loved to kick Reilly…if—if he hadn’t opened an emotional wound of mine,” I blinked.

Aelita nodded, understandingly. “You’re right. But that’s all in the past, now. Let’s try to leave that behind when we leave California.”

“I’ll try to push it behind me,” I smiled.

“You should all try that,” Georgina suggested, smiling warmly at all twelve of us. “Let’s leave all of the negative, terrible feelings about your stay at the School behind you when we cross the state line into New Mexico. That way, you can all have a fresh start, and focus more on the trip back to France.”

“Yeah,” Jeremie sighed. “Alright.”

“What if we see them again?” I asked.

“Why would we?” William folded his arms as he looked at me, seeming quite sure of himself. “You were there, in some form, when Max and her flock infiltrated the place. We left them in a really bad way. They’ll probably still be recovering from that, so I doubt they’ll actually try to chase us.”

“True. I guess I’m overthinking again.”

“Well, they _could_ always come back, and find a way to come after us,” Hunter suggested. “Like for instance, even though you guys supposedly slammed XANA, he could always come back, even if he won’t be nearly as strong as he used to be, right away.”

“Let’s just relax for now. I’m still feeling waves after Jeremie’s harrowing ordeal,” I shuddered slightly.

Jeremie grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut as he found my shivers contagious. “Ughhh… _don’t_ remind me…”

“Oh, _relax,_ you two!” Odd, however, felt more confident. “They fixed the side door, remember? We’re just gonna have a safe ride, all the way to Maryland.”

“Right,” Yumi smiled, reaching over to ruffle my hair. “Just think about all the stops we’re going to make, and the hotels, too. You’re both going to be just fine.”

Oh, could she just choose better words?! My mind brought to the forefront what happened before they put me on the chopper. I gritted my teeth and fought the tears. My being felt as though it was back in that increasingly flooding storm drain, but this time, no one drugged me, my claustrophobia was winning, and there was no exit or rescuer in sight.

Yumi gasped as she saw the look on my face, and tried to think of what might have caused it. She went through everything she had said, before gasping once more, and adopting a look of shame, as her mind recited the words “You’re both going to be just fine.” Oh, how could she have forgotten those words were like a trigger! She felt really terrible after that, as she stopped ruffling my hair, and started slowly and soothingly running her fingers through it like she did whenever she, Aelita and I would share a bath at her house, while she thoroughly soaked my hair. She mentally berated herself for being so careless as to forget how much those six words—or seven, as the case may be—really got to me.

“Cassidy…?” Jeremie asked, noticing my reaction and Yumi’s change in action.

Yumi took a deep breath, the shame she felt overtaking her face and voice. “It was something I said to her… I told her something that reminded her of what the whitecoat said, before he sedated her, and put her into the chopper…!”

Odd put his hand on my shoulder, and softly rubbed it, probably thinking he was Sister as he tried to console me. “But Cat Girl, you’re not _going_ on another chopper ride. We’d never do that! We’re just gonna stay in the van, remember?”

His words were like a switch, as though someone found a way to get me out of the waters before they engulfed me and filled my lungs. My mind cleared as I started to purr. “I really need therapy after this. I hope Mr. Klotz will help me instead of thinking I’m Emily.”

“Emily hasn’t been in to see him in a month, I’ll have you know,” Jeremie smiled. “I modified and gave her the Dream Barrier Destroyer program in the form of fully-functional MP3s. So she can have beautiful and intricate subconscious projections instead of horrendous ones that cause an emetic response from others.”

Ulrich sent Einstein a confused look. “Could you say that in words?”

“Jeremie took the Dream Barrier Destroyer,” Aelita began to “translate” Jeremie’s words into plain English, “and made it into MP3 files for Emily that she could listen to when she goes to sleep. Now she’ll have plenty of good dreams, and none of those really bad dreams she used to have.”

“I knew Patrick’s Enya CDs would come in handy, someday!” Odd quipped, grinning at the boy in question.

“But it’s great that she can sleep better,” I smiled. “I knew that it would come in handy for her. Remember when we were at the hospital?”

Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Sister, Patrick, and Kaitlyn nodded.

“You could say I took your advice,” the blond genius added.

“It was merely a suggestion. Plus, I wasn’t in a stable mindset back then because I had just woken up from my coma,” I giggled.

“Regardless, it was a very good idea,” Jeremie replied, my giggling making him grin, “and it really worked out well. According to Mr. Klotz, she hasn’t had a single nightmare for nearly a month, now.”

“That’s good, and _that’s_ why she was more chipper that morning of our abduction. I didn’t notice it at first and thought she was still plagued. But that was great, Einstein,” I grinned.

“It was nothing special.” The blond genius tried to be modest at first, before launching into another explanation. “All I did was turn the computer code into sine waves, capable of reprogramming the signals in her brain, and hid them in specific songs. Mainly tracks where multiple vocal and audio tracks are layered atop each other.”

“You almost can’t even tell,” Aelita added, smiling. “It sounds just like a part of the song.”

“I only wish it had worked more efficiently on me when I was always overwhelmed with the same used-to-be-sporadic nightmare.” I adjusted my glasses.

Einstein copied my motion. “That’s true. However, your nightmares were different than Emily’s; yours were a sort of premonition as if your clairvoyance was giving you subliminal messages.”

“True, but I should’ve spoken louder. Instead—”

“We’ve all dealt with that problem already,” he interrupted, folding his arms. “That’s all in the past, now. If another situation like that were to arise, we know the most efficient way to handle it.”

“I haven’t had another dream like that yet, so I think it’s safe to say that we’re in the clear for a while,” I smiled.

The bespectacled blond grinned as his eyes widened, slightly, as the van’s engine turned over. “That’s fantastic!”

Even Odd looked happy about this. “Yeah! I wonder if maybe the Dream Barrier Destroyer got stuck within your brain, somewhere? That way, you can’t have a nightmare, even if you watched _Hospital of Horrors_ with me and Hiroki!”

“But, Odd, even a few nightmares went through a couple nights ago. Remember… the one I had a couple nights ago that I’d rather not talk about in front of everyone yet?” I prompted.

 _Mi_ _novio_ slowly started to look a bit confused, moments before he instantly remembered, and his face shifted to a sheepish grin. “Oh yeah… _that_ one…”

“Yes. I’m not even sure if it has any significance yet. I don’t want to look too deep into it, though.”

Ulrich placed the palm of his hand against the back of his head. “It must’ve been really bad, huh?”

“Terrifying.”

Yumi reached over to softly rub my knee, once more.

“Don’t worry,” she soothed in a gentle tone, still looking a bit guilty from earlier, “you won’t have to talk about it until you’re ready. But I wouldn’t dwell on it too much. Nightmares happen all the time, and they don’t really mean anything.”

“You have a point there, Yumi, but thanks to a few of them, and Franz Schaeffer’s diary, Aelita was able to regain her identity,” I noted.

“You’re right about that,” Jeremie agreed, just as we felt the van speed up, “but it still isn’t a good idea to worry about it just yet. You’ve done enough worrying and distressing for one day.”

“Or almost a couple weeks, Jeremie, darling,” Sister came in. “My dear sister has been worrying and stressing since this whole abduction began.”

“She’s even worrying more than _you_ , Einstein!” My wildcard jumped in, with a slight chuckle.

I raised a finger. “Well, when _tú, tu novio, y tus amigos_ all get kidnapped, you start panicking about things here and there. I know that Georgina helped me calm down and relax here and there, but I still had anxiety about some things.”

“I think it’s safe to say we’ve _all_ been worrying about this entire situation,” the blond genius suggested, pushing his glasses up over the bridge of his nose. “But I think that maybe Yumi’s right and that we should all just calm down, relax, and enjoy the ride. I’m sure the first hotel we stop at is going to have plenty of amenities, and take care of all of the rest of our worries, our nerves, and probably anything else.”

“You’re right,” Aelita smiled. “Plus we’re away from that place.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yes…all thanks to Jeb, Georgina, Ari, and Max and her flock. At least they came in when they did.”

“We’re only sorry it took us as long as we did to get there,” Jeb lamented, still glad that he helped to save us, nonetheless.

“We couldn’t let those scientists do horrible, unspeakable things to you if we could help it,” Georgina added, smiling warmly as she stared out the windshield.

“And that’s why we’re gonna make it up to you,” Ari finished, giving a thumbs-up. “Not just this entire trip to Maryland, but every hotel we stay at, and every fast food joint we eat at. And even on your journey to France, too.”

“ _Fan_ tastic!” Odd cheered at the mention of “fast food joint.”

“And that would be great, Ari. I’m not sure, but I think we’ll need your assistance.” I didn’t know where I could have gotten that. I had a vision of how things would look at Kadic when we came back, but all I saw was the Subdigitals, and I just assumed they were gonna play a surprise concert for us, to welcome us home. I didn’t have a vision of what would actually happen once we _got_ there… Could I subconsciously know something that my mind doesn’t even know about? Wait… it happened at the School… but I thought that was a one-time thing… did the whitecoats do something to my psychic powers?!

Nearby, I could hear Yumi thinking about the most tactful and gentle way to ask me where I had come up with that. I knew she was probably walking on pins and needles more so than the others, so she was anxious that even the tiniest thing, said with the best of intentions, had a chance of causing me to curl up into a ball, or explode with anger on her again.

“Ummm…” she began, “did you find out what would happen… when we get back to Kadic?”

“No, but I think my intuition is tingling as much as my powers are.” I shook my head. “It’s crazy, but at first, I thought my powers were intuition. It just ended up being false when Ulrich and Jeremie discovered that I was psychic in the scanner room.”

“But you _were_ right about _one_ thing,” Jeremie reminded me, with a smile on his face, threatening to burst out laughing like an active volcano. “You did point out that _someone_ would be a giant purple cat on Lyoko; it just happened to be you, rather than Odd.”

“And you almost knew that I’d become a samurai,” Ulrich added, “and that happened without you having a vision.”

“True. I guess it was a remnant from the first vision. I wasn’t very experienced with my powers at first,” I shrugged. “And any means of controlling them was almost impossible.”

“But you got better at it,” Aelita reassured me, smiling warmly. “Even now, it’s just like the early days, when you first met us.”

“Yeah, plus Jeremie gave me the idea that I should write them down in a journal like he would jot his thoughts in his diary,” I smiled, giving Einstein a wink.

My winking caused his eyes to widen slightly, and a barely noticeable tint to fill his cheeks, but he smiled back, nonetheless. “And it definitely came in handy, didn’t it?”

“Oh, yes, Jeremie. Plus I drew a lot of pictures. It’s lucky my powers could remember a lot of details. Otherwise, Odd _throwing three pages of my vision journal in the incinerator_ would have invoked major consequences,” I said.

 _Mi_ _novio_ grimaced, starting to worry that just that mere mention had set me off again. “I told you I was sorry! Besides, I only did it because I thought you had drawn pictures of Sissi’s father, _not_ Aelita’s!”

“Well, you definitely were lucky that I was able to redraw those pictures from my powers’ memory,” I sighed.

“Yeah… you’re right.” He sighed as well, sounding a bit down. “That’s why I didn’t touch your vision journals again, after that. I don’t even know half of what you draw in there, anyway.”

“I thought you knew that my vision journals were public to the gang, Odd. Ulrich didn’t know, even if he peeked in one of them that happened to coincide with the day that you and Kiwi were to become infused for an afternoon.”

Everyone except Sam, Hunter, and Kiwi started looking at each other, passing unsure glances up and down the line, before Yumi finally spoke up.

“We thought they were just meant for you,” she lamented, still sounding a bit guilty. “So aside from Odd those few times, and the one time Ulrich and Jeremie looked through one, we haven’t really touched them. You never really told us we were allowed to.”

“I left them out in the open in Aelita, Kaitlyn, and my old dorm room. They were even labeled ‘Open if you are part of the gang,’” I said, disbelief spiking my heart. I knew that they meant well for my privacy, but the only time I would put my thoughts in was in the form of Post-it notes.

Jeremie raised an eyebrow. “I rarely even went _into_ your old room… And even then… I must have missed that.”

“I put it on blank white stickers with pink marker, Einstein,” I giggled.

“ _Oh, no!!_ ” Ulrich’s eyebrows and upper eyelids hit his hairline. “If that was like that the whole time… we would have known everything… but we rarely went in to visit you, Kaitlyn, and Princess…”

“True, but I didn’t know that you valued my privacy over your curiosities, guys. Admirable on your parts, but my vision journals were like books you could read. I took a small leaf out of Jeremie’s book with the little notes scattered around,” I smiled.

“You mean you put little Post-it notes in with your regular entries?” Einstein’s voice piqued in curiosity.

“Exactly.”

“But let’s not get all worked up over that again,” Sister suddenly cut in, starting slightly loud at first, before dropping to a soothing, calming tone. “It’s all taken care of, so we don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

“She’s right, guys. It’s in the past now,” Kaitlyn agreed.

“Yeah, because we just passed into Arizona!” Georgina announced.

Just like that, everyone’s eyes immediately shot toward the windows, as a big “Arizona: The Grand Canyon State Welcomes You” sign flew past us on the highway. Knowing that we had passed the California state line was almost like completely leaving behind the problems we had faced, for most of us. We were now in Arizona, and that meant that we could hopefully take a deep breath, and not have to worry about anything crazy happening between here and Las Cruces. And even though we had gotten away from the School, the Erasers, and the whitecoats, there was still a long road before us.

 


	17. Stopping at New Mexico for the Night and Reminiscing

**Hunter Moebius and I do not own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s and the plot.**

Like I just mentioned, we had finally crossed the California state line, and headed into Arizona. As we watched the welcome sign fly by next to us on the highway, most of us thought about our new location, and how much things could change, now that we didn’t have to worry about California.

“I heard that most of Arizona doesn't follow Daylight Savings Time.” Jeremie tilted his head to the side.

“I totally don’t know why that is,” I shrugged. “It’s one of those fun facts of the States.”

“One thing’s for sure,” Hunter trembled excitedly. “I think the farthest west I’ve ever been is West Virginia. All of this is still new to me.”

After Hunter said that, Kiwi hopped out of Sister’s lap and raced to the back window. “Good bye, California! I hope to never see you again as long as I live.”

“We probably won’t, Kiwi,” Yumi chuckled, finding the words of _mi novio’s_ diggity dog to be cute.

“That’s right. Plus, we have plenty of time,” I smiled. “I am just glad we don’t have to endure one more moment of being in the School.”

“Me, too,” everyone in the gang agreed.

Patrick grinned. “I can’t wait to practice Aikido in the gym in Kadic in the mornings.”

“And I can’t wait to see Rosa again,” Odd chuckled. “I bet she misses us.”

“I don’t remember her voice in the report, but hey, she might miss us, too,” I giggled as Kiwi trotted back and hopped into _mi novio’s_ lap.

“She probably didn’t have time,” Ulrich quipped, grinning. “The whole time Odd was gone, she probably had enough food to give to the entire student body, twice over.”

“Wait… what report?” Jeb asked, curiously.

“Cassidy had a vision of France 24’s news report,” Aelita smiled, “while we were having our out-of-body experience.”

“So, who was in this report?” he blinked, slightly curious.

“Olivia Descartes, doing the report. Odd’s mother, my mother, Mr. Delmas, Cassidy’s mother, Ulrich’s father, surprisingly, William’s father, Yumi’s father, Aelita’s mother, Patrick’s father, Kaitlyn’s mother, Hunter’s uncle, Sam’s mother, Jim, and Chris from the Subdigitals. Not exactly in that order, but Chris did say something last,” Jeremie listed, counting on his fingers.

“Wow…” Jeb sounded quite impressed by this, turning his attention toward me. “Your psychic powers enabling you to pick up a French broadcast, from all the way over here…? That’s really something.”

“You should have seen it when she had a vision in the School before it was too late,” Hunter grinned.

I giggled sheepishly. “It was more of a ‘lost vision’ than a regular one.”

“You mean… there’s a difference?” Odd quipped.

“ _Novio_ , my memories—” I couldn’t finish, as I fell back in my seat and cackled.

“Odd, you definitely have her going,” Ulrich chuckled, almost chiding his original roommate.

Aelita grinned, letting out a slight giggle of her own. “That’s my ‘cousin’ for you!”

Odd nodded, a confident smile on his face. “Better believe it, Princess.”

Of course, my laughing fit couldn’t last forever, as I took a deep and cooling breath, letting a couple more chuckles through before it ceased. “That was brilliant, Odd…”

“Hey, would I be your boyfriend,” he grinned, giving me a playful look, “if I didn’t make you laugh from time to time?”

I giggled. “Plus I did say that I liked your jokes that day you and I were kidnapped into that ultimatum.”

“Yeah!” Odd recalled, letting out a bit of a chuckle, as well. “And you also said you’d date me if you weren’t already dating William. And just look at what happened!”

“Foreshadowing at best when I least expected it,” I smiled, kissing his cheek.

Odd chuckled as my lips touched his face. “You’re the psychic after all, Cat Girl!”

“Well, I didn’t know that I’d date you then because I was already in a relationship with William. Plus, my visions would show only you guys’ actions. My own were in free will mode.”

“I don’t necessarily think _our_ actions only exist on a fixed plane, either,” Jeremie jumped in with his own suggestion. “Besides, ever since we worked to severely weaken XANA, you started having visions that included yourself, as well.”

“At least mine are now including me,” I nodded at Einstein. “I often felt left-out in visions involving only you guys.”

“Well, what about me?” William suddenly spoke up, remembering something that was important to him. “You never even told me you _had_ psychic powers until after I broke up with you. You told me during that Explo-Bat guy attack.”

“Because I didn’t know if you would think I was as weird as the rest of Kadic’s population figured I was back then.” My face and voice fell. I couldn’t have known how he was going to react to that news, but I thought my timing still worked somewhat well, even if he didn’t.

“Yeah, you’ve got a point, there…” William admitted, his tone falling slightly, as well. “After all, I did jump to a conclusion, when I broke up with you.”

“Yes. And it damaged me after the Lyoko mission. I cried for two reasons that night: The break-up, and what happened to Aelita in Sector Five,” I admitted.

Closing his eyes, Jeremie shook his head quickly, loathing the memory my mention brought to the front of his mind. “You were even having a hard time knitting Ulrich a scarf, that night. I think you and Aelita felt the worst out of all of us after XANA escaped from the Supercomputer.”

Before anyone else could chime in, Hunter suddenly jumped in, surprising all of us. “Can we talk about something else?!” He gritted his teeth, sounding somewhat annoyed.

While we were mentioning all sorts of terrible memories, along with the way I was acting, whenever someone would remind me of what the whitecoats and Erasers said and/or did to me, it was starting to affect him quite a bit, and with the mention of XANA’s elaborate scheme to steal the Keys to Lyoko from my former first roommate, he had finally reached something close to a breaking point. “We’ve just been talking about terrible memories, ever since we left Dr. Martinez’s house. We’re out of California, now. We’ve left the School behind. Why don’t we talk about something happy, for crying out loud?!”

“Hunter’s right,” Sister added, agreeing with the black-haired boy. “Why don’t we leave our bad memories in California? We’re in Arizona, now. We won’t be able to enjoy our vacation if we’re just thinking about all the bad things that have happened to us.”

“Well, that’s _one_ way to change the subject,” Odd quipped, chuckling a bit, before turning his gaze on me. “And anyway, Cat Girl, you just gotta remember, it’s ‘knit one, purl two,’ not ‘purl one, knit two’!”

I giggled, feeling him weave his magic. “Odd…”

Even Ulrich started laughing at that one. “Who taught _you_ how to knit, anyway, Odd?!”

“M-Milly and T-Tam-Tamiya p-probably did!” I cackled.

“I-it was an old c-cartoon!” _mi novio_ tried to squeeze out, in-between laughs. “Y-you can t-thank Bugs B-B-Bunny!”

Sister grinned as well, giggling at Odd’s joke. “Now, _that’s_ what I like to see! My dear sister laughing right along with everybody else!”

“Yeah,” Hunter agreed, smiling.

“I’m glad that everyone is starting to feel better,” Jeb added, beaming amusedly at our laughter.

“Much b-better,” I nodded, taking in a deep breath. “Odd’s still got it, I have to say. He has magical comedy in him that I fell in love with the first day I—um… met?—him…”

“You probably saw him coming,” Ulrich suggested with a grin, “the day you told me he was going to be my roommate.”

I smiled connivingly, round three of giggles about to pour from my mouth. “But you told me that his name was _not_ a name and insinuated I _had a crazy dream the night before_.”

Instantly, Ulrich’s eyes widened, and the confident smirk that had once graced his face was quickly swept away by a gaping hole. I knew I had gotten him with that one and was waiting, giggles threatening to throw my lips out of the way, for him to reply to that one.

“Huh?!” he began, before letting loose a stuttering frenzy. “Wh-wha… uh—dah… well, you, uh… duh… yeah, well… uh—duh…”

I started cackling. When he rehearsed his vowels that way, it was just as golden as Odd telling me a joke.

Yumi even giggled at that one. “That sounds just like the Ulrich I met, that day at Jim’s Pencak Silat class.”

“Oh, t-this was… b-b-b-before h-h-he even met y-you!” I managed to speak, soon finding my calmness again. “He apologized after science class. Odd seemed flabbergasted, though.”

“It’s not every day you meet a psychic,” Odd playfully defended himself. “I had just met Cat Girl and Ulrich, and already she was showing him a thing or two!”

“Hey, it got Sissi, before we became bonded as sisters, off his back,” I bantered.

“You’re right,” Odd agreed.

Nearby, Sister raised an eyebrow, before the other eyebrow followed, finally realizing exactly what had happened, those years ago. “So _that’s_ why you said you weren’t feeling well, Ulrich dear!”

“Well, I didn’t mean to make him sick enough with guilt or to deter him from you that day, Sister, but it happened that way,” I shrugged. “I just thought he would just accept it and be all snarky to you, you inviting him to your dorm at eight, and we go on from there, but nope.”

The more I continued, the more I could tell Sister was getting surprised. “Sure, I would’ve _loved_ to have Ulrich come up to my dorm room, and spend some time with me, but the way he looked and sounded when he told me that, it felt like an awful time. So I just kept to myself.”

After a deep breath, Ulrich finally broke his silence, as he turned to face her. “Sissi, I think a lot better of you now, than I did before, even if I would have said ‘no,’ if you had asked me that day. I just couldn’t believe Cassidy had proved me wrong so quickly. I didn’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay, Samurai,” I smiled. “I surprised you so fast, I guessed it made your head spin a little.”

“Only a _little_? More like it spun right round like a record!” Odd chuckled.

“Good thing it wasn’t a crazy dream, then,” Jeremie found _mi novio’s_ laughter contagious. “Otherwise, I would have asked you about how you came up with Aelita’s name.”

“It was the day you reactivated the Supercomputer, Jeremie,” I beamed. “Couldn’t mess with that part of the space-time continuum even if I tried. You’d probably get curious and activate it regardless, but that day was set in stone. Plus, seeing you with Aelita makes my heart soar to new heights.”

“Well, uh…” Jeremie soon found he had metaphorically caught Ulrich’s “vowel rehearsal syndrome,” with the added side effect of a rosy blush on each of his cheeks, as he fought to speak a coherent sentence, but couldn’t. “You see, um… yeah.”

For her part, Aelita’s cheeks had adopted a slight tint as well, along with a few giggles here and there, mainly from Jeremie’s reaction. She enjoyed being with Jeremie, as much as I enjoyed seeing the two together, but the mention of it still surprised her a bit, even if she wholeheartedly agreed with it.

“And when I learned Ulrich and Yumi decided to take their relationship up a notch instead of down one peg, my heart exploded with joy,” I smiled. “I caught it straight from Samurai’s metaphor.”

Yumi couldn’t help but smile, as well. “I’m surprised he didn’t come right out and tell you, even if it _is_ Ulrich. Not even I would want to keep _that_ a secret for too long.”

“Ulrich said that you two felt like flying across the starlit night sky. That’s how I figured it out,” I grinned.

“You see, Cassidy? Your psychic abilities are really cool,” he smiled. “Plus you have good deciphering skills.”

“Hey, it's better than you two being on opposite ends of the elevator car and you saying ‘We're the best of friends’ in a bitter tone,” I giggled.

Hunter, meanwhile, started to grin with satisfaction. “Now _that’s_ galactic dancing! _These_ are memories you should talk about—ones that make you laugh or feel good. Not ones that end up hurting one another.”

“I love the time you said that one quip about Christmas on Lyoko,” Sister smiled at me, aiding him even further.

“Jeremie thought he sent Aelita and I to the Forest Sector, when we entered the Ice Sector instead,” I chuckled. “That was practically dying to be said.”

“Oh, don’t forget about your record, Cassidy,” Patrick grinned.

“I wasn’t even _looking_ to set a record that day, but it happened like it did for a good cause.” My heart leaped in joy.

“Franz chose me because he had a vague inkling of me,” Sister sighed happily. “But when he came out of the scanner, he started to remember.”

“For a moment, I thought it was completely random that he did that, but now, it makes much more sense than I realize.”

Odd raised a finger, a memory coming forth into his mind’s eye. “I remember how much steam you had in the beginning, Cat Girl. You sure scared Einstein a few times when you got overly excited.”

“Hey, Lyoko felt like a wondrous escape, and I could be free to get a bit wild occasionally. However, I also knew when I was transporting precious cargo.” I winked at Aelita.

A slight tint painted Aelita’s cheeks, the thought of being considered ‘precious cargo’ something she didn’t feel worthy of. “Well, uh, that was very nice of you to treat me _gently,_ and not get too carried away.”

“Hey! I helped take you to towers, too, Princess,” Odd protested with a smile on his face.

It was then that Jeb decided to change the subject. “I know that you all are looking back on the good times, but was one of your stops the Grand Canyon?”

It was as though someone put an amplifier and a microphone in the van, as our voices sailed throughout the airwaves, “NO!”

He tensed slightly, as though having not expected that type of response. “Okay, everyone, let’s just relax. I was just curious.”

Jeremie grimaced, and, even though his thoughts weren’t in the private domain anymore, he let them out anyway. _I just survived getting tossed out of the van over a bridge, and he wants us to see THE GRAND CANYON?! That landmark’s over a mile deep!!_

As if to reassure him, Aelita wrapped her arms around her darling knight-in-glasses, giving him a warm snuggle that relaxed him somewhat, while coloring his cheeks in a hurry. “Calm down, Jeremie. We’re not going anywhere we don’t want to.”

With a free hand, the blond genius reached behind his head and rubbed the back of his neck. “Y-yeah, you’re p-probably right…”

Odd couldn’t help but laugh at how flustered Aelita was making Jeremie. “Yeah! C’mon, Einstein! You didn’t think we were gonna let you fall _again_ , did you?”

“And risk Cassidy having another heart attack?” Einstein quipped. “No way!”

“I love the genre, but heck no to the techno on that,” I agreed, a smile still on my face. “I already fainted once because Yumi saved him. I don’t want to do that again.”

“Don’t worry. Nobody is going to fall _down_ anything, or _out_ of anything,” Aelita declared in a soothing tone, as she started to softly rub her blond boyfriend’s back, through his brown turtleneck. “So you can calm down, too, Cassidy.”

“Thanks, Aelita.” Then as though to change the subject back to a friendlier topic, I continued, “I still don’t know why I called you ‘Princess,’ that one time. Not even _Yumi_ calls you that.”

My former first roommate immediately realized why that had happened. “It must’ve been the Modified Reverse Schyphozoa, that Jeremie used to give you more courage. After all, Odd calls me that quite a lot.”

“Ulrich, too, and even Jeremie has, once or twice,” Yumi added, agreeing with her. “But Cassidy’s right; her and I are the only ones who have never called you that.”

“And William, Hunter, Sam, Sissi, before we became bonded as sisters, then Sister, Kaitlyn, Kiwi, at first telepathically, and Patrick never did that,” I pointed out.

Kiwi yipped. “I just never knew why you two would call her that every now and then.”

“Well, it’s like how Odd and I sometimes called ourselves her ‘knights in shining armor,’” Ulrich explained, facing _mi novio’s_ diggity-dog. “On the one hand, she’s like the Princess of Lyoko, so I thought it was fitting. Odd just picked it up from me.”

“Oh, I see,” he grinned, turning his snout toward Aelita. “I just thought you were a royal princess when they called you that.”

“Huh?” Aelita blinked, looking a bit confused by Kiwi’s answer before her face slowly morphed into a smile, and she began to giggle.

“That’s my diggity dog for you, Aelita,” Odd quipped, a wide grin adorning his features.

Even I couldn’t help but fall back into my seat and laugh. _Mi novio’s_ avian-canine was just so cute.

Odd started chuckling when he saw how I reacted to what he said. “If I didn’t know better, Cat Girl, I’d say you’ve got the giggles, now!”

“It’s better than making her feel horrible or frightened,” Hunter agreed, a smile blossoming on his face.

“That’s for sure,” Yumi added with a nod.

Patrick grinned. “And she’s in a better mood than ever.”

A few seconds later, I slowly came down from my laughing fit, as Jeremie pulled out the laptop we had bought him, as a temporary replacement for the one he had, back in France. Opening it up, turning it on, and opening up a few programs, including a map of the United States, he watched the program highlight exactly where we were.

“At the rate we’re going,” he mentioned, staring at a line on the map that formed the path we had planned to take, “if we continue on the road we’re taking, it’s going to bring us right past the abandoned military base Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, and Cassidy visited in New Mexico.”

I smiled. “And the Mighty Ulrich Samurai Stern stabs the Supercomputer just as the mandelbug eats away at his legs!”

Ulrich’s face soon bore a similar grin. “Yeah, that was pretty amazing, wasn’t it…?”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself, good buddy!” Odd added, lighting up like a flashlight. “Who cares about some dumb old bug, anyhow?”

“I still remember how Jeremie pushed four letters of my first name and the last seven letters of your last name into a bug name that I don’t even know how he came up with it.” I shook my head.

“I wasn’t planning on giving it that name permanently,” Jeremie explained. “It was just a temporary name I came up with since the bug seemed to affect the both of you first, before spreading to the others. I didn’t want either of you to think I was blaming you for the sudden appearance of that mandelbug.”

“I was in too much pain to care, remember, Einstein?” I giggled. “Odd on the other hand…”

Odd folded his arms, pretending to look serious. “Well, if you hadn’t worried about bad luck, after breaking Ulrich’s mirror, huh, Cat Girl?”

“Luck didn’t have anything to do with it, Odd,” Jeremie interjected with a smile. “Even the most well-written software is bound to have bugs at some point.”

“Yep, and I almost thought that bad things were about to happen, _Novio_ ,” I giggled. “I was just surprised to see that it went in the opposite direction for most of the day.”

“Those extra pancakes, and the cup of hot chocolate from Rosa,” Odd began to recount, remembering the strokes of ‘good luck’ that had befallen me, after I broke the mirror, “almost like she knew the machine was going to break before I got there!”

“Hey, you got to eat a croissant instead of dry toast!” I protested, still smiling.

“She’s right,” Aelita agreed, a warm grin gracing her features. “At least this time around, things went better for you.”

“I still don’t know how it made Jim give us teddy bears,” I cackled.

“I remember most of the girls having one,” Ulrich commented, and I could see he was thinking of a picture of one in his mind. “When Jim came by, I thought Odd would want to give you one.”

“That was sweet of him,” I squeezed out in between chuckles. “I was still a bit weirded out, but appreciated the gesture.”

“It’s true that they do come in handy quite often,” the blond genius added. “I’ve even found that conversing with one aids in the debugging process if you’re starting to run out of ideas.”

Instantly, I stopped laughing, looking at Einstein in pleasant surprise. “You kept one, Jeremie?”

He looked a tiny bit embarrassed to admit this. “Well… yes. At first, I thought it would be a terrible idea, as I was never really into stuffed animals, and while I could, uh…”

He stopped, blushing a bit as he gazed at Aelita, before continuing. “Actually, she was the one who convinced me to keep it, reasoning that… well, it might come in handy for problem-solving, whenever I’m programming, and she isn’t around to help me.”

“That’s perfectly fine, Jeremie. I still have mine in Lyoko HQ,” I grinned. “I named her Aerona.”

“That’s a pretty cool name,” Patrick commented, and I could tell he was drawing a similarity between it, and where we were. “Did you name it after the State of Arizona?”

“It randomly came to me. It was before I unleashed the monster, after all,” I shrugged nonchalantly.

Nearby, Aelita blinked, and from the look of slight surprise on her face, I could tell she probably figured out another spelling behind the name.

“Is it… based on my name?”

“I actually looked up your name and Aerona’s. Aerona’s has a Welsh origin. Yours, Aelita, is English in origin. Hers means ‘Battle Ending.’ Yours, ‘Noble.’ And based off of events that we’ve witnessed altogether, it’s spot-on,” I smiled.

The look of surprise on Aelita’s face grew, along with her eyes. “Y… y-you really think so…? I’ve never… thought about it that way, before…”

“Yes. Even that one time you helped Yumi, then me, you showed something great. Sure, you wondered why I didn’t stop you, and I should have…”

“Hey…” Hunter warned, afraid I was going to start feeling sorry for myself, again.

“...but you did a noble act no matter the consequence at first,” I smiled in his direction, making my mental shields like a private messaging system. _And I’m okay, Hunter._

In reply, he leaned forward, cradling his head in his hands. _Good. And I’m sorry, too… It’s just, all the negativity in this van really started to get to me… I didn’t want you to start feeling terrible again..._

Of course, he didn’t realize that I had used my mental shields to only send that thought into _his_ brain; I guessed he either didn’t have mental shields of his own or if he did, he didn’t know how to use them. I glanced around, watching everyone’s reactions, knowing that they probably had no idea what he was replying to.

“Hunter, _who_ was that thought aimed at?” Jeremie was the first to say something, looking at the black-haired boy with surprise on his face, and in his voice, whose head slowly lifted upward at his comment.

He blinked, slowly finding Einstein’s expression contagious. “What do you mean? You didn’t hear what Cassidy thought, just now?”

“No, why?” the blond genius asked.

“She just told me that she was okay, probably to what I said to her, and I just…” He suddenly came to a stop, his eyes widening further. “Wait! How did she…?! How did nobody else _hear_ that?!”

Yumi was next, having a pretty good idea as to what happened. “She must’ve used a shield, so that way, only one of us could hear her thoughts, rather than all of us. That’s why you were the only one who heard it, Hunter.”

“I figured that since I usually use them to hide certain emotions, it made sense that they could be malleable enough for me to mold into a sort-of private messaging system, too.” My cheeks felt as though they were on fire. I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal; if everyone in this van, aside from Jeb, Georgina, and Ari could hear my thoughts, I could still choose to vent my feelings toward one or more people in particular, or just block everyone out completely, and therefore keep them at least semi-private, if not entirely, right? I guess I wasn’t expecting to have it revealed like that, but I should have known Hunter wouldn’t realize that I had only meant for him to hear that in his mind. At least nobody’s treating me like garbage because I can still play with my thoughts. Of course, the others probably have mental shields, too, even if they don’t know it.

“Hey,” she whispered. “It’s okay, ya hear. You have great ideas, too.”

“I guess so. But hey, at least you told everyone the truth about who saved Jeremie. I’m grateful for the rescue,” I smiled.

“So am I,” Jeremie added, his look of surprise turning into one of relief, as he gazed at my geisha friend. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t used your telekinesis… even if you didn’t even know you could use it outside of Lyoko.”

“I didn’t know,” she replied, looking slightly confused as she returned Einstein’s gaze. “I guess it just… happened. I still don’t even know how I did it, or even how to do it again.”

“You were levitating yellow dandelions earlier,” I pointed out, gesturing to the one she put in between my braid and my glasses.

Her eyes zoomed to the flower, as she gritted her teeth. “Yes, but… I had my eyes closed the entire time, and I don’t even think I had any control over it. And I also can’t even remember what I was thinking about when you told me they were flying around…”

“They might operate on a subconscious wavelength,” Jeremie suggested, as most all of us could hear the gears turning in his mind, “as, up until that point, you didn’t even know you had them. Of course, they might have been another present from the whitecoats. But that doesn’t mean you can’t discover a method for controlling them manually.”

“That’s true, Yumi,” I noted, my voice floundering for tact. “It’s like what you tried to tell me before you kinda um… forgot certain elements?”

Hunter raised a finger, pointing it in my direction. “What did I tell you about…”

Yumi slowly turned her head in his direction, offering him a calming, soothing smile. “Don’t worry, Hunter. Everything’s under control.”

A shiver shot down my spine. Another one of my triggers, “Everything’s under control” made me think of what that false Franz Schaeffer said to the Aelita decoy. However, I tried to swallow it and nod in agreement to Yumi’s statement.

She then turned her attention back to me. “And you’re right. I really wasn’t thinking, when I said that. If you can figure out how to control your psychic powers, I can understand how to control my Earth telekinesis.”

It was then that Aelita happened to glance over at me, noticing my hidden distress. “Are you okay, Cassidy? You look worked up.”

Of course, I couldn’t bring myself to lie to my former first roommate, so I told her the truth. “One of my triggers flared up unexpectedly.”

“Really?” Ulrich interjected curiously. “Which one?”

My face and voice contorted into painful distress, as I brought up the memory. “‘E-e-everything’s u-under c-c-control…’”

Right away, Hunter grimaced, and buried his face in his hands, annoyed that something had set me off, again.

“Bandersnatch!” he groaned. “We were doing so well!”

This made Yumi upset as well, only more so at herself, instead of me, for my reaction. The look on her face morphed from calmness to surprise, as I reacted the way I did, and Aelita called me out on it, before transforming, again, into anger, her eyes closing as she growled under her breath. This was the second time in a row that she had inadvertently said something that freaked me out, set me off, or done something even worse, and it made her feel even more horrible than she had, the first time she made that mistake.

Even though I was half-aware at the time, considering the imposter of Franz Schaeffer had tried to fry me, knocking my powers offline for a couple seconds, hearing those words intensified my worries.

And that was when Sister reached over once more, wrapping her arm around my back, and softly rubbing my shoulders. In an instant, I could feel that pain slowly dissolving, bringing such a soothing feeling of relaxation that the look of fear on my face didn’t stay there for long.

Gradually, Yumi calmed down as well, realizing that Sister had the situation under control and that she would probably get a visit from the principal’s daughter shortly after, to relax away her own feelings of guilt.

“There you go, dear sister,” Sister grinned. “The only triggers you’re going to have, now, are ones that trigger long, soothing calmness!”

“Thanks, Sissi,” Jeremie smiled, also relieved that my fears had been soothed away.

I nodded, a sun-shining beam on my face. “Yeah. Thanks, Sister!”

Just like she had assumed, Sister soon slid over toward Yumi and began to give my geisha friend a slow, soothing, and soft back rub. Almost right away, I could feel her own feelings of guilt disappearing, like the sun evaporating water that was left behind by rainfall.

“I’m sorry, Cassidy,” Yumi lamented, the corners of her lips slowly curving upward into a smile. “But I’m not going to worry about that, anymore.”

“It’s okay, Yumi. Everything’s great now,” I grinned, my attention still on the healer. “Thanks, Sister.”

“Don’t mention it!” Sister replied, closing her eyes as a big grin overtook her face. “I’m just glad to see the both of you feeling so much better!”

“Yeah,” Odd and Aelita agreed.

I beamed, just thinking about Sister’s gentle shoulder rub. “That was so refreshing.”

“You always were good at that, Sissi,” Ulrich added with a smile of his own. “I’ll admit that.”

“She makes me feel better. Since her reformation, I’ve been proud to call her my sister by bond,” I said, still grinning from ear to ear.

“You said that in California,” Yumi pointed out.

“Yeah, before things got worse,” I giggled.

“That’s why we oughta make sure the rest of this trip is much more tame,” Patrick admitted, adding his own smile to the bunch. “No more crazy misadventures with whitecoats, Erasers...and no one stinging our necks anymore.”

“I am so glad that we don’t have to worry about that anymore, either,” I agreed, subconsciously rubbing my own.

“Just think of all the wonderful places we’ll get to see,” Aelita added, keeping the mood uplifting, “and all the wonderful things we’ll get to do.”

“Yes,” Kiwi agreed. “Plus, my Tutu will be waiting!”

That caught me completely off-guard, and I fell backward into my seat, laughing my head off. I mean, Kiwi was already pretty cute before this entire mess started, but now that he can talk… I could tell my friends thought it was going to be really weird, but it was actually kind of interesting, and to me, it made him even cuter. Top that off with the fact that he even got his own doggy girlfriend due to love at first sight, and the level of cuteness was staggering.

“What’s wrong?” Odd cracked, on the verge of laughter. “You act like you know what Hunter’s Lyoko Warrior form is.”

That got Hunter to sit up straight, looking over at me with a look on his face that was equal parts surprise and curiosity. “ _Do_ you?”

With difficulty, I shook my head. “N-no vision...a-about…” I kept cackling, unable to finish my sentences.

The black-haired boy calmed down, slightly, slouching backward in his seat once more, looking a tiny bit disappointed, but trying to hide it. He didn’t want me to stop laughing, because to him, that meant I was in a good mood, not atoning for all my past sins.

Jeremie looked over at _mi novio’s_ diggity-dog, with a grin of his own, slightly laced with surprise. “I don’t know what you said that made her laugh, but I’ve never seen her burst out laughing at just about anything, before.”

“She’s been needing a lot of good laughs, Einstein,” Kiwi panted. “She thought I was cute. Of course, she’s always thought that, but still.”

“Maybe it’s because you’ve found a girlfriend that’s just as cute as you,” Aelita suggested, her own smile increasing from the thought of it, “that she’s finding it hard to take it.”

I drew in a deep breath, slowly coming off the ceiling. “If it weren’t for the fact that your girlfriend’s name is Tutu, I would think something else, Kiwi.”

Odd placed his hand against his chin, taking a few moments to figure out what exactly I meant by that before his eyes widened.

“Don’t tell me you’re _still_ thinking about Kiwi in a wedding dress, Cat Girl!” he suddenly interjected, once it all clicked in his mind.

“Your weapon of choice is still the shovel,” I struggled, before I lost it, chortling anew.

Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita found themselves snickering at that random comment, my raucous laughter making everyone feel better, and almost want to laugh right along with me. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about suffocating, just yet. Only if Odd told another joke, the moment I calmed down for the second time.

It was a matter of time before we caught Jeb’s attention, the man sounding mostly lighthearted, but a bit concerned. “Let her come up for air, you guys. She’s gonna choke if you keep making her laugh like that.”

Slowly, I started drawing a deep, cooling breath, my laughter thinning to nothingness. “Wow…”

“You okay there, Cassidy?” Jeb looked back, turning a light-hearted smile on me. “You looked like you were going to laugh until you fainted again!”

“I think so. As Jeremie said once before, ‘A nice laughing fit is good for you from time to time,’ and I’m happy to report that it’s true,” I winked at the resident genius.

“Of course it is,” Jeremie agreed, returning my wink with a grin, which slowly turned to curiosity in the next moment. “But, how did you remember my exact quote, word-for-word?”

My eyes widened. “I—I don’t know… That’s strange. Usually, I get a few words wrong.”

Einstein raised an eyebrow. “It could just be another facet of your psychic powers. Or something like what happened, during our out-of-body experience. It’s probably no big deal.”

“Eh, I’ll give you that, Jeremie. After all, it could be a fluke, too. Remember my one-shot powers that came out of nowhere?” I grinned.

“You almost made me run away from Jim!” Odd remembered that day quite well, and how his arm seemed to suddenly move on its own. “I had this really strange need to grab your iPod, then, later on, I felt the urge to ease up on cleaning your wounds! You never told me how you did that!”

“I really don’t know either, Odd, to be quite honest with you,” I shrugged.

“What about the time you just suddenly stopped time for five seconds?” Jeremie added next, another memory, courtesy of the monster.

“Yeah, I’m still wondering how I managed to do that,” I admitted, a sheepish grin adorning my face.

“Well, at least you can’t talk to the dead,” Ulrich quipped, remembering the one time Sister brought him and me into the boiler room for a séance.

“I didn’t mean to assume your powers could help speak to spirits, dear sister. It was wrong of me to do,” Sister lamented.

“It’s okay, Sister. You just thought since I had powers, I should be able to do anything,” I smiled. “Besides, it was only once. No big deal.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” she nodded, slowly calming down.

“Yeah.” I reached across the way and hugged her. “Plus, you’re my sister, Sister! I love you.”

“Oh, sister!” she returned my hug, her eyes nearly welling up with tears as her voice started to break. “I love you, too!”

Nearby, Aelita couldn’t help the warm grin that overtook her face, as she watched the two of us embrace. It was like a family reunion, almost.

Even Yumi found herself smiling, the sight wonderful to her eyes, as well.

 _You’re doing a good job, Sissi!_ she thought to herself, knowing the principal’s daughter would hear it in her own mind. _Just keep it up._

My smile threatened to separate from my face. “Yes…”

Odd quickly brought his hands up, linking his index fingers and thumbs together, and looking through the rectangle they made. “Aww, look at the beautiful family portrait!”

As soon as he said that, Sister and I broke the embrace, but instead of knee-jerk blushing, or flat-out denying the whole scene, I threw my head back and cackled. _Mi novio_ still had his own class.

He soon found my laughter contagious, his hands dropping into his lap in the process. Even Einstein couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene.

“You definitely have ‘style,’ Odd,” Patrick and Ulrich chorused.

Aelita giggled at that, as well. “He makes his own style.”

A few moments later, I came up for air. “Don’t forget about the time he unleashed ‘Chef’s Surprise!’”

“That was an insane stunt he pulled,” Jeremie’s male cousin quipped. “I didn’t know that he was that extreme.”

“You should see him when Aelita rides with him on his OverBoard,” Jeremie jumped in, staring at the ceiling almost sarcastically. “You’d think that would get him to calm down, but you don’t know Odd.”

“Hey, don’t forget that sometimes there was someone with a sidecar,” Yumi interjected, giggling.

“And Cassidy the Magnificent saves the Darling Princess Aelita from sliding to her doom with her amazing sidecar!” Odd recalled in a dramatic voice as if he were an announcer.

Aelita closed her eyes, a smile slowly forming on her face, as her cheeks slowly began to heat up. I couldn’t help but follow along as well, only I didn’t close my eyes; the redness in my cheeks was quite easy to see, though.

“And it was brilliant,” William added, grinning at me.

“Take it easy, William. Too much praise and she will faint,” Ulrich warned gently.

The praise was getting to me, but it wasn’t enough to completely bowl me over. I could feel a little bit of dizziness, but I still had the strength to hold on. I only hoped they’d get off the subject, so I didn’t end up landing atop my former first roommate by accident.

Yumi must have sensed this because she cleared her throat and spoke up next. “So, Sissi, tell us about the time you talked to Hervé after he forced Jeremie to tell Cassidy the truth about the monster.”

As though her words were a soothing breeze, the thick praise-filled fog cleared from my mind. I blinked and nodded, grinning at what she said. “Testify, Sister!”

“Well, I didn’t exactly tell him he had to keep it a secret from my dear sister,” Sissi recalled, a slight giggle escaping her mouth, “but I think he was angry at me for some reason, so—”

“I don’t believe he was mad at you, Sister. He thought I had either lost what was left of my marbles,” I blinked, “or, that the hospital staff drugged my food. Weird of him to assume that they did, but it still made me suspicious.”

Hunter’s eyes began to widen, worried that the next few memories we were about to hit were bad ones again. “Hey…”

“These are neutral memories. They aren’t causing a negative effect on me, Hunter,” I smiled.

Sister raised an eyebrow, wondering what had gotten into the boy that supposedly had a crush on her. “HUH?!”

“I told him you had been through a lot in what I perceived was the past month, trying to calm his overheating brain. I didn’t know that it would lead to him turning the tables on me, Sister,” I shrugged.

“But _who_ does he think he is, startling my dear sister like that?!” Sister growled furiously, slamming her fists into the cushion that bookended her legs. “When we get back to Kadic, I’m… ooh!!”

“I know you’re angry, Sissi,” Aelita soothed. “We didn’t intend for Cassidy to find out the truth about what had happened as quickly as she did.”

“He _shouldn’t_ have brought it up!” Sister steamed, still upset about the entire subject, regardless. “And _he_ thinks he wants to be with _me_ , does he?! Well, no one, not even that pizza-faced _nerd,_ messes with _my family!!”_

“He’s still really sorry about it, Sister. Any time I passed him in the campus before we weakened XANA, he ducked his head at me and thought, ‘Sissi probably thinks I’m a loser for hurting Cassidy. I really didn’t mean to hurt her psyche that much. It came as a shock when she said one month.’ He’s guilt-ridden inside all the time,” I consoled.

That completely knocked the wind out of Sister’s sails. Watching her face and attitude suddenly change from red hot to worried, was like watching the look on Jeremie’s face, when XANA lost control of him before he could electrocute Odd, that one day. “Ohhhh… I didn’t know he was like _that!_ Oh, the poor thing… Maybe I’ll have to give him a very warm snuggle when I see him again! That’ll tell him I forgive him!”

“Yep. He’s very hurt that he almost caused a—”

“Okay!” Jeremie interrupted, seeing where the sentence was going. “How about the time we discovered the key to materialization for Aelita?”

“Oh, yes!” The girl in question gave a full-crested grin. “I knew you’d get it, after a while. You worked so hard on it, it was only a matter of time.”

“I was so excited I started dancing,” I giggled, in response to Aelita’s reminiscing.

“And you were so happy that when she did come out of the scanner, you did it again,” Yumi smiled.

“I felt so full of energy and excitement, and it was great when I still had that. I hope to have it again one day,” I beamed.

“What do you mean, ‘you hope to have it again, one day’?” Odd cocked a brow. “You already have it! You _still_ have it, Cat Girl! You can’t lose that!”

“She probably is still recovering,” Jeb inputted. “I think that’s what she meant.”

“That’s true, she’s been like this since her coma,” Ulrich came in, “right? She has been—”

 _You’re all playing the “Ignore Cassidy even though She’s Present” game again,_ I interrupted with my thoughts, a growl escaping my throat as I clenched my teeth.

“Can’t we ask others about your behavior?” Ulrich cut in, trying to justify his own.

“But Ulrich, I’m sitting right here!” I protested. “And y’all promised…”

“She’s right,” Yumi added, apologetically, with an affirming nod. “We did promise not to talk about her like she isn’t in the room when she really is.”

She then turned to look at me. “But at the same time, maybe the rest of us have seen how your behavior has changed, in ways that… maybe you haven’t. We don’t mean anything bad by it. We’re just curious, that’s all.”

“I understand, Yumi, but it still felt like what we discussed a couple days ago. Sometimes even _I_ wonder what has happened to myself other than what you have told me,” I sighed, her words calming my anger and frustration.

“I’m sure it’s no big deal,” Aelita tried to soothe me even further with her gentle, disarming voice, even going as far as to softly drape her arm around my back. “After all, you’re still the same Cassidy we all know and love.”

“That’s true, Aelita. Plus, it’s not as though what I twisted Ulrich’s words into has come true,” I smiled.

Ulrich’s eyes widened as they fixated on me, a look of pure surprise swallowing up his former expression, as his words became lodged in his throat. “Uh… duh—uh… dah… dah—dah—dah—huh?!”

Hunter creased a brow in confusion. “Wait— _what?_ ”

“I don’t think I should talk about it, Hunter,” I blinked, keeping a smile on my face. “It is one of my darker memories, after all.”

Hearing this made his look of surprise disappear, and his teeth grit. “Yeah… Good point. Never mind.”

“Besides, it’s history now,” I giggled. “Right, Samurai?”

“Uh… duh… I mean, uh…” Ulrich began, before shaking his head quickly and regaining control of his speech. “Yeah. I don’t ever want to deal with that again, either.”

“Besides, we’re going to get back to Kadic to a Welcome Home party,” Odd jumped in, grinning widely at the thought.

“And I don’t want to admit that whitecoat was correct, but I will see my parents and grandparents again,” I blushed, heart hammering a little from the memory of him trying to coax me onto the chopper.

Now it was Jeremie’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

“It was one of the things he tried to get me on the chopper. I was frenzied by that point.” Face unwavering, I twirled a finger in the air, almost like Aelita did in front of that false imitation of her father in the simulation bubble.

The way he grimaced after that, it was almost as if he was copying Hunter’s change in facial expression, from just a minute ago. “I-I-I get it… sheesh… the things those whitecoats did to you… it’s crazy!”

“Yep. Didn’t help that I became a total nutcase, but I was in the throes of a panic attack. What could I do?” I asked, curiosity taking hold.

“You try to fight back?” Ulrich suggested, with an “isn’t it obvious” sort of look on his face.

“Ulrich, they were overpowering us,” Aelita interjected, gently. “We had no choice but to carry out their plans.”

“Plus they could have done worse to me,” I muttered darkly.

“You mean, worse than the multiple injections they gave you, and the test that gave Hunter a meltdown?” Jeremie reminded me, folding his arms.

I gritted my teeth, scratching the back of my neck, a wave of unease washing over me. “Well, when you, um…put it like that, Einstein…”

Yumi quickly turned a look of slight anger on the blond genius. “Jeremie, did you really need to say that? We all know how bad it was for all of us. Let’s just try to forget about it, okay?”

“Yeah, plus, Hunter wants us to talk about good memories,” I sheepishly added, mind going through some of the great times until I hit a good one. “Like the assembly we had. That was so great.”

“Yeah, you’re right, it was,” Patrick agreed, a grin slowly overtaking the lower half of his face. “Even though I haven’t been a Warrior for as long as you have, it was still nice to pretend we were on Lyoko.”

But as he finished that sentence, his expression softened, slightly, as he turned his eyes on his male cousin. “And Jeremie, could I ask you something?”

“Uh, sure, Patrick. What is it?” Jeremie nodded.

“Umm…” He rubbed the back of his neck, and I could tell he was afraid of how the others were going to reply to what he was about to say. “When we get back to Kadic, could you… reprogram my costume? I’d rather not look like a pink pony-human hybrid if that’s okay.”

 A smile grew on the blond genius’s visage. “I’m already in the works on that. You look terrible in pink. Don’t worry. Once we get re-settled into our lives, I’ll start programming you a new one, right away.”

“You’re a genius, Jeremie,” Aelita grinned, giving her _novio_ a thumbs-up.

The smile on Einstein’s face was soon joined by a slight red tint on both of his cheeks, after that one. I couldn’t help but giggle in reply.

“It was about time they finally honored us as the heroes we are,” Odd agreed, in response to my original subject switch. “And it was in the greatest way possible.”

“I loved the costumes they put on us,” Kaitlyn grinned. “They even got my guns right.”

“Oh, that was great,” Sister agreed.

“You’re right.” Even Yumi had a smile on her face, just from thinking about it. “It was great to be a geisha, again. And when they dressed me up in my ninja outfit, it reminded me of Jeremie’s teleportation.”

“I definitely loved how accurate the makeup was,” I giggled, finally grasping a new sense of uplifting.

Hunter, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea what we were talking about. “Oh, so the heads at Kadic actually did something about your Lyoko missions?”

Aelita nodded, a smile on her face.

“Oh, that’s right. Hunter wasn’t there,” I realized. “Sorry about putting memories into your head that you didn’t have any part in, Hunter.”

“No, no, you’re enjoying yourselves.” Hunter merely waved it off, having second thoughts about his outburst, and not wanting to ruin our happy moment. “It sounds like it was interesting.”

“Right you are, Hunter, darling. And it overwhelmed my dear sister so much that she had to sit in the locker room for a spell,” Sister nodded.

“It’s true, but I enjoyed the rest of our evening,” I grinned.

Sitting behind the wheel, as she continued driving down the highway, even Georgina had a warm smile on her face. “I’m thrilled to hear that, Cassidy.”

“Yes.”

“Sounds like that was an amazing party, though!” Sam jumped in, her grin wider than mine. “Is that gonna happen to Hunter and I, when we become Warriors?”

“We’ll just have to see. Maybe we will have a pre-graduation party,” Yumi smiled, the concept starting to get her excited.

“That sounds like fun,” Kaitlyn nodded. “Maybe they’ll dress us up again like they did the last time.”

And I could just imagine how amazing that would be. I absolutely loved dressing up in my old female purple cat outfit, and even the upgraded version, one that looked like Jeremie had teleported me, just like Yumi had mentioned, earlier. They even painted our faces, so Odd, Aelita, and I had our respective facial markings. After Jeremie would upgrade Patrick’s costume, and we finally get to see what Hunter and Sam looked like, I was sure it was going to be incredible. If they actually do something like that… Wow…

Odd grinned, giving me a look. “You just wanna be a cat girl again, don’t you, Cassidy?”

“Can you blame me? I loved the work Emily did,” I shot back playfully.

“She’s an artist?” Hunter rubbed his head, slightly confused. “I know who she is, but the monster barely showed me anything about her. Just some random girl Odd once dated.”

“Milly, Tamiya, and Emily did our makeup,” Aelita smiled.

“They did an excellent job,” I giggled. “So super accurate, I couldn’t believe it.”

Hunter’s eyes widened, slightly. “Wow… guess they really studied the monster, didn’t they…? Now I wish I had seen it. That must have been incredible.”

“Milly and Tamiya hadn’t left their room in a very long time. So I can only hazard that they had to grab everything it showed them—maybe that’s why I was out like a light for a long time,” I blinked.

“Your eyes had been white when you closed them, Cassidy,” Jeremie observed.

“That’s the reason why you played eye doctor?” I asked. Even though I was hazy when I woke up, my first visual memory was Jeremie looking me dead in the eyes, as though I had answered a question of his incorrectly.

“Exactly,” Jeremie clarified with a nod. “When you first opened your eyes, we wanted to make sure that it was really you, and that your psychic powers didn’t still have control over you.”

“Ah. Well, uh… I’m, uh… glad you checked,” I smiled, feeling a bit awkward.

But Odd soon noticed this and started to softly and slowly rub my back. “But don’t worry, Cat Girl! You’re still you!”

“Yeah,” I agreed, relaxing in his nice caress.

Aelita glanced over at me, noticing my eyes were slowly starting to close, and adopted a smile. “You definitely deserve a nice rest after what had happened in California.”

“You’re probably right, Aelita,” I yawned. “Especially American-born girls like us.”

That got everyone’s attention. At first, they weren’t sure if that was something I just mumbled while half-asleep, or if I was actually serious. As various looks of surprise painted my friends’ faces, Yumi was the first to ask the currently burning question.

“Huh?! You’re saying that Aelita was born _here?!_ Where did you hear that? _”_

“Birth certificate…” I managed to mutter, snuggling into _mi novio_.

Jeremie glued his jaw back onto his skull. “Of course! The day she went on a solo mission in the Hermitage to find Aelita’s date of birth. Naturally, among other things, it would also list her place of birth.”

Odd found his bearings next. “So, not only did Cat Girl, Assassin, and Hunter come over from here. Princess did, too! I can’t believe it!”

“‘Assassin?’” Ulrich wondered, raising an eyebrow as he noticed one nickname in Odd’s sentence that didn’t make sense.

“Why, Kaitlyn, Ulrich. Because of her Lyoko form, of course,” he answered.

Ulrich realized he should have known it would be that obvious. Most of Odd’s nicknames and names for XANA’s monsters came from how they looked to him. Jeremie was smart, so he naturally thought of Einstein, even though he was sure Odd had only heard of that name and didn’t know who old Albert was. I was a giant purple-then-pink-then-back-to-purple cat on Lyoko, hence the nickname “Cat Girl.” Ulrich and Yumi earned their spot as “Lovebirds,” and Franz was “Henri,” something he wasn’t entirely sure about. Of course, he wasn’t one to shy away from nicknames, either, given that he was the first one to call Aelita “Princess”; he also remembered the day he collaborated with Odd and Yumi to create “Danger Psychic” for me, but that nickname withered and died after a while.

“I don’t think you’ll ever stop with the nicknames, Odd,” he smiled.

“It’s like I’ve told you, good buddy; I feel that if you’re going to fight something, they should have a name,” _mi novio_ cracked.

It was as if the volume of the speakers in the van had increased, as all of us chorused, “You’re crazy, Odd!”

That gave him a good belly laugh, the wildcard throwing his head back and clutching his stomach, as he did so. “It’s like I’ve got my own fan club!”

For a moment, I giggled, too, until another yawn escaped my mouth. “You are well loved, Odd… even by me.”

“I wouldn’t expect _anything_ less out of you, Cat Girl!” he replied in-between laughs.

“I don’t think any of us know what we’d ever do without you, Odd,” Aelita added, a warm grin on her face, as she watched my laughing _novio_.

“I’d rather not go through a _full list_ of things we’d be in trouble with if Odd didn’t save our butts,” I tried to contain another yawn.

“T-that won’t be necessary,” Jeremie jumped in, hoping to stop me before I started. “Most of us already know that Odd has helped us out in a ton of ways.”

Yumi giggled at that, as she glanced over at me, as well. “But I think you should go for a nap before you do anything.”

“As soon as my giggling boyfriend calms down,” I teased tiredly.

It was true; apparently, our joke had cracked the wildcard up so much, his laughter threatened to break him apart. I couldn’t exactly sleep next to the cackling machine, as his constant shaking would keep me awake. So how would we calm him down? Wait it out, until he came down from his self-induced high, and took a few deep breaths? Or should someone say something terrible?

That was when my eyes widened. _Wait…_ “I think I wouldn’t have minded having Kiwi’s tail.”

“HEY!” Kiwi protested.

A few deep breaths from the diggity-dog’s owner followed, before he, too, turned a surprised look on me. “What would you need Kiwi’s tail for? Kiwi needs Kiwi’s tail!”

“Just kidding, Odd,” I deadpanned, yawning. “I know how much you hate Kiwi-related jokes, and from his reactions, so does Kiwi himself.”

He folded his arms, completely ignoring my umpteenth yawn. “That wasn’t funny the second time either, Cat Girl! I can’t have Kiwi running around without a tail!”

“Wasn’t even thinking that it was funny. I just knew it would bring you out of your intense laughing fit.” I blinked at him, about to nod off.

Odd’s eyes turned toward the ceiling of the van before he put his hands on my shoulders. “Why don’t you just have a nap now, Cat Girl? You’re starting to think jokes about Kiwi losing his tail are actually funny. You’ve been awake _way_ too long.”

“Doesn’t help that I was up since six in the morning,” I said, my voice grinding to a gravelly tone. However, I lowered my head onto his chest, eyes closing.

As I did this, I could feel him moving his hands around, so his arms enveloped my sides, snuggling me close to him, as the slightly-angry frown on his face slowly turned into a smile. He then leaned forward, delivering a soft, gentle kiss to my forehead.

“Sleep well, Cat Girl,” he whispered, as I slowly felt myself drift off.

\---

“Hey! Cat Girl!” he announced. “Wake up.”

I groaned, my eyes cracking open, interrupted from my nap-induced dreams. “Odd? Where are we?”

“We’re in New Mexico,” my wildcard replied, happily. “You slept all the way through Arizona. You were really tired out!”

“Hey, you go through an adrenaline rush in one state, you start feeling tired after it wears off in another,” I yawned, stretching slightly to wake my body up.

“Don’t worry,” Jeremie jumped in, smiling at me as well, “we won’t _ever_ have to go through anything like that, again. Besides, if you look out your window, you might find something just a bit familiar.”

I looked, my eyes widening as they beheld the laboratory that Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita, and I had visited on separate occasions. “Oh, wow…”

It was while I gazed in awe at the building, that Odd remembered something that he and I had done, the first time Aelita, Ulrich, and I visited here.

“I’m sure you remember,” he joked, a grin overtaking his face as he closed his eyes. “ _Somebody_ here forgot that they weren’t allowed to speak English!”

“The Spanish bet,” I giggled. “I kept speaking it in the Replika mission. That was a great challenge, though, Odd.”

Hunter snaked his fingers through his hair, remembering the sequence well, thanks to the monster. “Oh, man… the whole time, I started to wonder if the monster somehow got switched into another language for you, Cassidy… it was so hard to keep up!”

“You think _that_ was strange?” Ulrich concurred, giving the black-haired boy an ambitious grin. “Try riding through the Digital Sea while getting yelled at in Spanish by her.”

“Well, you did say some ill-timed quips about Odd and me. I think it was pretty justified.” I raised a finger.

“So, next time, I think I’ll bet you to speak in German,” Odd retorted, giggling at himself. “That way, I’ll win for sure!”

My jaw dropped. “I don’t know German, Odd!”

Thankfully, Aelita came to my rescue, as she glared at my wildcard. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to have any more foreign language bets. The last time it happened, Cassidy was having a hard time deciding exactly what to say, especially at the lunch table. It really made her feel terrible, Odd.”

“Oh…” _mi novio_ groaned. “I’m sorry, Cassidy. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay, but don’t make me undergo that again,” I nodded, still staring out at the lab. “Seven Kankrelats and four katanas, Samurai, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Ulrich grinned at the thought of that memory. “I was on a real lucky streak that day. Kinda like you, but not like Odd.”

“Hey, the mandelbug thingy affected me, too, Ulrich, sweetheart,” I teased.

Samurai went to reply, but my choice of words threw him off a bit. “Dah—dah—huh?”

My smile grew bigger. Seeing him this way just melted my soul into giggles. “I know you were in this state when Odd and I were first affected, but you were the last one the mandelbug touched.”

As Ulrich slowly regained his bearings, Jeremie scratched his head.

“I still don’t understand it,” he lamented, with a bit of worry in his tone. “I still don’t have any idea how Odd and Cassidy could have introduced the bug into the supercomputer, nor where it came from, or why it affected everyone else in sequence, ending with you, Ulrich.”

Ulrich, now entirely coherent again, sent an ambitious grin toward _mi novio._ “I guess I was just lucky, right, good buddy?”

“Don’t start talking to _me_ about luck,” he bantered in mock-seriousness, “unless you wanna get laughed at!”

“Yeah, Odd, but I was the one that broke the mirror. Not you,” I giggled, before ceasing and turning my attention to Jeremie. “I don’t know what caused it either. I’ve been trying to figure that out, but so far my brain seems to want to say that William’s Orlando, but that’s ridiculous.”

“Objection, your honor, extenuating circumstances. Orlando’s my middle name,” William came in.

Yumi whirled her head around to face the boy, raising an eyebrow in sheer surprise. “Huh…?!”

“Well, originally, it was going to be my first name, but Mom changed her mind two weeks before I came into the picture,” he shrugged.

“Can’t say I knew that fact before, Ex-y. I guess my brain ran on too many nap fumes,” I smiled, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder.

He smiled back. “I never really told you before, that’s why.”

“That’s fine, William. For some reason, at first, I thought they gave you the middle name of James, but man, was I _way_ off,” I giggled.

“You read too many _Harry Potter_ novels, Cat Girl,” Odd quipped. “And to think I read your favorite while you were in your coma.”

I quirked a brow, looking at _mi novio_ in intrigue. “You mean, _and the Chamber of Secrets_?”

“What other one is there?” my wildcard replied rhetorically, as Aelita began to giggle.

My smile continued to blossom, turning my attention toward her. “What’s so funny, Aelita?”

“You should have heard him trying to speak in Parseltongue,” she added, still giggling at the thought. “I thought he was whispering!”

“Well, I’m sure it was a good effort,” I nodded. “Odd’s no Slytherin. Come to think of it, I’m sure he’d be good in Gryffindor. Bravery, loyalty, definitely adventurous.”

“Don’t forget funny, smart and humble, all rolled into one svelte package!” _mi novio_ added, closing his eyes and stretching his arms out, toward the ceiling of the van, with both index fingers extended.

“Daring, having a lot of nerve, chivalrous…” I giggled. “Ulrich and William fit there, too. Yumi… hm… I see a lot of Ravenclaw, same with Jeremie and Aelita, but she’s also a Gryffindor, too. Hm…”

Before I had a chance to finish my sentence, Jeremie immediately jumped in, noticing I was putting quite a bit of thought into my upcoming reply.

“Don’t stress too hard, Cassidy.” His words carried a slight tinge of fear, unsuccessfully masked behind calmness. “I’m sure you’ll find a suitable Hogwarts House for each of us, but later.”

I nodded, sighing calmly. “You’re right, plus a few I’m having trouble with because I don’t know them that well yet.”

“Just relax, Cass,” William smiled. “You don’t have to sort us all in one day.”

“He’s right; we don’t all need to know, just yet,” Kaitlyn added, with a similar, reassuring grin to _mi ex novio’s._ “We can probably figure ours out for ourselves, too.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Plus, I love seeing the lab that helped me be a bit less homesick.”

Jeremie let out a bit of a giggle at this. “I’m starting to wonder if I could have modified the landing parameters, so the teleportation would have sent you straight to Illinois or Nebraska, especially if there hadn’t been a Replika close enough.”

“It’s okay, Einstein. I don’t think it could’ve gone that far. Plus, I don’t want to end up with clone mania again,” I giggled along with him.

He huffed in mock terror, a smile still on his face. “Oh, no. I’d rather not go through _that_ again!”

“I would hate to find that instead of Tracy or Chessy, one of my other sides came out, and I don’t know how many I have,” I said.

“What about Alexx or Hunterr?” Ulrich spoke up, with a malevolent grin on his face. “If you thought one Odd was bad…”

“Hey!” I shouted, anger constricting my heart. “ _¡Odd es mi novio, Sr. Samurai!_ Didn’t I tell you _not_ to insult my boyfriend all that long ago?!”

You should have seen how quickly his former grin disappeared, as he came face-to-face with my ire.

Then _mi novio_ turned in his direction, folding his arms, and adopting a malevolent grin of his own. “I think you’re just jealous because Cassidy and I got two more good buddies of our own!”

“One of whom was emotionally sad and depressed, Ulrich,” I pointed out, glaring at him.

With this, he found his courage, along with an angry voice, and returned my glare, raising an eyebrow as the cherry on top. “What are you talking about?! I’m not emotionally sad and depressed! Are you out of—”

“Remember Chessy?!” I mirrored his eyebrow-raise.

“Of _course_ I remember Chessy!” he shot back, not missing a beat. “But I’m telling you, _I_ _don’t act like that!_ ”

“That’s who I meant, Samurai,” I lowered my voice into a slightly sultry “I challenge you” voice, a smile blooming on my face. “ _She_ acted like that. I know you don’t act that way at all.”

His look of anger morphed into a surprised grimace. “Huh—gah?! Wh…?! Then…! What are you looking at _me_ like that for?! What… uh—dah… huh?!”

Aelita brought her hand up, hiding her giggling as Ulrich rehearsed his vowels again.

“Because you thought I was talking about _you_ , Samurai…” I teased.

Even though I was silly, Patrick decided to offer Ulrich a hand, in an attempt to untie his tongue.

“You’re much better than that clone of hers, anyway,” he consoled, grinning at the German-named boy. “From what the monster showed me, she seemed way too high-maintenance.”

“Even _I_ don’t require much,” I admitted, smiling.

“That’s true.” Odd gave me a huge grin like he was going to lead the subject down an entirely different path. “All we need to do is hand you a couple of knitting needles, and a skein of yarn, and you’re all set! You could be holed up for days in the lab, working on a shawl for Aelita!”

After babbling incoherently for a few seconds, Samurai was finally able to pull the huge knot out of his tongue, just as _mi novio_ finished his sentence. “Uh… sorry, Cassidy.”

The next reply didn’t come from me. Instead his beloved stepped in. “It’s okay, Ulrich. I know we’ve made fun of your behavior before.”

“Plus, I was making fun of my clone’s, this time,” I giggled. “You’re doing fine, Ulrich.”

Ulrich rubbed the back of his head, as his gaze met the carpeted floor, still feeling a bit embarrassed for getting incredibly confused by what I had said. “Yeah… you’re right.”

“Besides, we are almost to our hotel, aren’t we?” I asked Jeb.

“That’s right,” Jeb replied, without moving his head. “We’re a good twenty minutes away.”

“Cool,” I smiled, reaching under my seat and retrieving my shoes. “I can’t wait to get settled in.”

“Yeah!” Odd exclaimed in agreement. “I wonder what kind of breakfast they’ll serve us, there.”

“It’ll probably depend on what kind of hotel we’re going to,” Hunter commented, and we could all tell that the hotel was exactly what he was thinking about.

Yumi nodded, before sending a slightly malevolent grin toward _mi novio_. “I’ll bet you want one with room service, huh, Odd?”

“That’s right!” Odd grinned.

“Plus we can order pizza, and most places deliver,” I giggled.

“Great idea!” Yumi smiled, closing her eyes.

“After this whole trip so far,” Ulrich added, “it’ll be nice to get a chance to relax.”

“Yes, and possibly rest without any nightmares,” Kaitlyn jumped in, hoping to continue the trend of positivity.

“And see if XANA has reared his ugly head since we weakened him,” Jeremie smiled.

“When I called my father last,” Aelita added, replying directly to Jeremie’s statement, “he said XANA hadn’t woken up, yet.”

“XANA’s gotten so far behind on his phone bills. I’m so glad his plan cut him off,” Odd cracked.

Before I could even get my right shoe on, I threw my head back and cackled. Even a few of the others couldn’t resist chuckling at his joke.

“Oh, great,” Ulrich commented, a grin spread across his face, “Odd’s girlfriend, the laughter-filled psychic, strikes again!”

“It’s _much_ better than her being down on herself,” my former first roommate giggled.

“You’re right,” Jeremie agreed, smiling at his pink-haired beloved. “It’s great seeing her in such a wonderful mood.”

“I wonder why she’s been so hard on herself, lately,” William posed, out of slight curiosity. “I understand she was so confused at first when she woke up from her coma, but what caused this new behavior?”

In reply, Ulrich’s, Yumi’s and Jeremie’s eyes widened, as the blond genius turned his head to face William, raising his left index finger up to his mouth. “Not now, William! We’ll tell you about it later.”

“Yes, William dear. We don’t want to get my dear sister any more wound-up than she already had been,” Sister added, somewhat gently cautioning the boy.

“Make sure she doesn’t eat any mint cakes,” Jeb came in.

Before any of them knew what hit them, I came down from my personal high Odd gave me, falsely gagging. “Ugh, Jeb… why…?!”

“What’s so wrong with mint?” Sam was genuinely curious but sounded like she almost thought the idea was silly.

“It is so gross…” I whined.

“You just haven’t tried a good flavor of mint, that’s all,” she replied, grinning at me. “Wintergreen tastes terrible, but winter mint… mmmmm…”

That only served to make me gag even further, for real. Seeing this, Yumi slid over toward me, wrapped her arms around me, and began to softly rub my back, between my wings, with both hands.

“It’s okay,” she softly cooed into my ear. “Just relax. Sam doesn’t know, okay?”

Slowly, my reflex calmed down, and I started to draw breath again. “S-sorry…Yumi…”

“Don’t worry,” she continued to coo, her soft, gentle hands still caressing my back soothingly. “Just relax…”

I took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled longer than the inhale. Her fingers were working their magic. I started to grin. “Thanks, Yumi.”

Nearby, Sam had adopted a shameful look, after seeing what Yumi had to go through, to get me to calm down. “Sorry, Cassidy… I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“I can handle mint toothpaste and candy canes at Christmas time, but never, ever in a cake or ice cream, Sam,” I tried to soothe, finally slipping my foot into my right shoe. “You didn’t know. It’s okay.”

Her mouth slowly started to curve upward, making it seem like she did feel a bit better.

“Besides, we are almost at the hotel,” I pointed out. “That’s something to look forward to.”

“What are you gonna do first,” Patrick asked me, “after we all get settled in?”

“I would like to eat first, Patrick. We’ve been traveling a lot of hours, and I think we are in the mountain standard time. Yes, I had a nap, but I think a good meal and then a good night’s sleep is a perfect idea,” I smiled slightly, reaching for my left shoe.

“Great idea, Cat Girl!” Odd agreed, grinning. “Nothing like something to eat, then hours and hours of sleep, after hours and hours of riding!”

“And I’m sure Georgina needs a rest, too,” Hunter pointed out.

“Just look at Kiwi,” Ulrich beamed, gesturing gently to the winged-puppy. “He’s already several steps ahead of us.”

Indeed, Kiwi had fallen asleep, his open hind leg slightly, and subconsciously, kicking in the air. “Oh… Tutu… You’re so beautiful…”

Aelita let out a cute giggle at the sight, as it brought back memories of a particular someone she was quite fond of.

“Doesn’t that _remind_ you of anyone, Jeremie?” she queried in a sultry voice, looking at the boy in question with a slightly mischievous smile on her face.

In reply, her blond knight-in-glasses seemed as though he had been caught somewhat off-guard, as a blush began to lightly tint his cheeks. “Um… well, uh…”

This only made his pink-haired beloved giggle more, as it told her he knew exactly what she meant. “Don’t worry, Jeremie. I do it, too. I’m sure you probably hear me in the morning when you wake up before I do.”

“I heard you in the morning, too, Aelita,” I blinked. “I don’t know what you were doing with a rubber chicken, but maybe it’s best I lay low.”

Now Aelita had gained a light reddish tint on her cheeks, as her smile was replaced with a look of confusion. “Huh? Uh… What do you mean?”

“You were doing something with a rubber chicken. Apparently, his name is Bertrand and—”

Her cheeks got redder after that, as she looked down at the floor, trying to paint a picture on her boots. “Well, uh… that dream had a sort of, uh… deeper meaning… Bertrand was actually supposed to be a sort of… um…”

“Oh, Aelita, please. Don’t sweat it,” I tried to console her. “I just found it strange at first, but since I remember Kiwi driving a saxophone in one series of dreams I had, I shouldn’t throw stones.”

She relaxed a bit, the tint slowly vanishing from her cheeks. “It’s okay. It’s been a while since I’ve had that dream, so it’s becoming harder for me to remember.”

“I don’t think it’s a problem,” I smiled. “Besides, you and I have been roommates for so long. We both talk in our sleep.”

“‘Butter is insoluble,’” Jeremie randomly quoted me.

“It didn’t help that I dreamed about Mrs. Hertz’s class that one time.”

“And the worst part is,” he added with a slightly mischievous grin, “that wasn’t even what she was teaching, that day.”

“It was more of biology,” I agreed. “And when I—excuse me, _my clone_ —went to class that day, we had a lesson on reproduction and rabbits.”

“I think we’ve _all_ had enough of clones for a while,” Jeremie lamented, remembering one clone in particular. “Do any of you remember the one time one of Cassidy’s clones tried to flirt with me?”

As if uniquely giving a “yes,” _mi novio_ started laughing. “ _Flirt_ with you?! Einstein, it was a few steps shy from asking you _out!_ It pulled your glasses off, it practically rubbed noses with you and even your chest at one point, it almost gave you a kiss… And it was running its fingers through your hair! I would’ve hated to have been Princess, if she had been on Earth, and saw _that!!_ ”

At least Odd could laugh about it; he didn’t go through it, like Jeremie did, and didn’t have terrible memories about it like I did. Even Ulrich was starting to grimace, as he leaned forward, running his fingers through his hair in disgust.

“Ugh… At _least_ I had the decency to not do that when I was recovered,” I moaned, blushing slightly as my wings ruffled.

Jeremie started to look a bit uncomfortable, as well. “And I really appreciate that. I don’t even _want_ to know what your clone would have done, if Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich hadn’t walked into my room and saw the two of us.”

“And I was totally out of it afterward, scared silly from the fact that—” I began, before getting a slight feeling of worry in the pit of my stomach. “Um… Maybe we should save that for later. I think Hunter’s getting a bit…testy from dredging that up from the past.”

Indeed, the black-haired programmer looked as if he was moments away from having his wings flare intensely, and there was a really good chance that it would break most, if not all, of the windows in the van. So, to counter this, I flipped through my memories again, before landing on one that made me smile.

“Remember when we got to see Odd’s sisters for the first time in the hospital?”

Yumi found my smile contagious as she nodded, remembering it well, despite still being slightly sedated at the time. “Yeah, they were nothing like Odd said they were. They were actually nice for a change. I was really surprised.”

“The monster probably changed that. I don’t blame it for that, considering how it changed Sister so fast it made my head spin the first several days,” I nodded, giggling.

“I think the monster made _everyone’s_ head spin,” Jeremie suggested, remembering how shocked not only he but everyone else, was, after that one moment that none of them would ever forget.

“You’re right!” Sister agreed, bringing her hands up to her head. “At first, it felt like something was messing with my head, and the next thing I know, I could remember everything I had ever done, and it was so weird, because I didn’t remember doing any of those things, and it was so freaky, I didn’t even know what to do!”

“Didn’t you say you had a bit of a headache before the monster was unleashed?” I inquired, tilting my head slightly to the side.

“Yeah!” She brought her hands down and pointed her right index finger at me. “I had gone to the infirmary, to get something for it from Yolanda, and the next thing I know, I’m floating, the school completely disappears, Yolanda and I are both glowing, despite...well, you know… and there’s purple, pink, and black everywhere, not to mention a yellow glow somewhere, and then I hear what sounds like Jeremie’s voice, and… the whole thing was just like… _woooow!”_

My eyes could not widen any further. Sister had just described the entire surreal experience with such vivid clarity, it was like witnessing it for myself, despite the fact that I was the one causing the whole thing in the first place.

Noticing my surprised expression, Sister continued. “But if it hadn’t happened, how would I have ever known that I had been such a _jerk_ to all of you!”

“I was still in America at the time,” Hunter spoke up, offering his account. “I was at a doctor’s appointment when it happened, getting a check-up before I flew over to France and the next thing I know… the doctor, my parents and I were all floating, we saw that… monster… and afterward, I felt like… Well, what’s worse than having a meltdown? Or even an overload?”

“Having a catatonic state?” Jeremie offered, his mind’s eye bringing to the forefront the memory of when Ulrich’s dad said something to me that threw me into such a condition.

“Yeah, something like that.” Hunter pointed at him with his right index finger. “But I had never, ever felt like that in my life. My parents immediately started rubbing my back, sides, arms, and belly, to try and calm me down, but when that didn’t work, my doctor gave me a bit of a sedative, which calmed me right down.”

“Your doctors knew how to take care of you,” Georgina soothed, keeping her attention on the road.

While she agreed with Hunter, my mind started in a myriad of directions that began to attack me with guilt. The monster had almost screwed with his sanity. How many others’ ethoses had it messed with? What horrors did they see? Do they see me as a freak of nature? Were Bastien’s words true when he called me out after he rescued me from the pool? That I “should be locked up in a mental institution?”

I put my hands to my head, my knees soon meeting my chest as I trembled. Throwing my mental shields around my thoughts, I closed my eyes. _This is my fault. It’s always been… I should have done the deed… I should have tossed myself into the Digital Sea and worked for XANA all that long ago…_

Despite my attempts to wall myself off, _mi novio_ , who happened to be looking around the van, started grimacing in fear when his eyes landed on me. It didn’t take him long to put two-and-two together and figure out exactly what had thrown me into yet another guilt-induced jab at myself.

His eyes immediately zoomed toward Hunter. “Uhh, I think that might have been a bit over-the-top, Hunter, good buddy.”

The black-haired programmer quickly glanced up in my direction. His face soon mirroring Odd’s, he whispered, “Bandersnatch!”

This sequence of events caused Sister to be the third to notice my current depressed state, her levels of worry soon reaching eleven. Quickly, she slid across the seat, and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into the warmest snuggle she could muster, knowing it would work twofold: the snuggle would calm me, and her gentle touch would activate the supernatural effect that would erase the guilt that was plaguing me.

“Oh, my dear sister!” she soothed in a soft version of her normal voice, with worry somewhat prevalent, “Hunter didn’t mean to make you feel like this! He just didn’t know that you’d react like this! Please don’t worry… You know we all love, care about, and adore you.”

Even though my mental shields were around my thoughts, keeping anyone from reading them, Kaitlyn seemed to be the fourth to notice my reactions. “Cassidy, you’re really special.”

My eyes shot open. With Sister’s gentle rubs alleviating some of the guilt and working to take away the rest of it, I almost had to do a double-take. “What?”

“Kaitlyn’s right,” Yumi added, giving me one of her usual warm, calming, disarming smiles. “I don’t think any of us can knit scarves for the Lyoko Warriors, come up with 119 plans, or warn us about XANA’s plans before they happen like you can. You need to stop thinking you’re terrible.”

“I’m still trying to knit Mrs. Hertz’s shawl,” I muttered in consideration, before bringing my tone up to normal levels. “Sorry. It sometimes gets me.”

“Only _sometimes_?” Patrick exclaimed. “Your self-esteem has been low since finding out about the monster. But you can’t let nearly everything be a trigger. You’re only going to conquer it if you try. Nobody blames you for that, no matter what you think. You have to tell yourself, ‘I didn’t have any control over myself, so there’s no point in letting it bother me.’”

I nodded. Yumi and Patrick were right, her when we were still stuck at the School, and him then. I was beating myself up. I’ve been acting like this entire thing was my fault from the moment it happened. Even if something had taken full control of me, like XANA had taken control of other humans in the past, I still felt as though I had done the whole thing, even though I hadn’t. And that was the point they were trying to get across; it _wasn’t_ me. It just used my body. They never blamed each other when one was XANAfied because they weren’t themselves. Why couldn’t this apply to the monster, as well? It was finally starting to sink in: it _wasn’t_ me. It _wasn’t_ me. _It wasn’t me._

It.

Was.

Not.

Me.

“No one in their right mind can blame you for that, anyway,” Hunter agreed, joining in. “No matter what happened, that wasn’t you that did it; something just took your body for a joyride, like what XANA used to do. Even XANA has done crazier things than this. And what has the monster done, just shown a bunch of videos?”

“It almost killed me,” I blinked at him. “It used nearly all my life…”

“Well, obviously it didn’t,” he gently countered, “unless I’m talking to your ghost, or some sort of clone Jeremie programmed? I’m pretty sure you bounced back from that unless your friends didn’t tell me.”

“That’s true. I guess my mind’s just painting all the negatives in front of me and none of the positives.”

Now it was Aelita’s turn to smile, reassuringly, at me. “Don’t worry, we understand. A lot of times, it’s hard to think of positive things, when you only want to think about the negative ones. But all you have to do is just push them out of the way. Tell yourself that you don’t want to think about them.”

“I could do that,” I smiled, Sister’s technique working, as I lowered my mental shields.

“Great!” Yumi nodded, with a smile of her own. “Remember to keep telling yourself that. If you forget, that’s when they’ll jump out at you.”

William copied her motion. “And we’re almost there, guys!”

With this, Sam’s attention immediately shifted toward the window, as if she was looking for some kind of street sign, telling them where exactly they were. “How much farther?”

“Just five minutes, Samantha,” Jeb smiled.

“ALRIGHT!!” Odd exclaimed, starting to get excited at the thought of staying in the hotel Jeb picked out, waking Kiwi up in the process. “As soon as we get into our rooms, I’m calling room service! I’m starving!”

“That sounds like a good idea, actually,” I agreed.  _“Tengo hambre, también.”_

“Maybe we could all use something to eat,” Jeremie chimed in. “We’ve been riding for hours, and the last thing we’ve had to eat was breakfast at Dr. Martinez’s house.”

“And I had napped in-between.”

“You were out for several hours,” Yumi remarked, smiling at me.

“Seeing one friend saving another friend from certain doom can tire someone out,” Odd pointed out, a smile on his face.

“And I don’t think _any_ of us felt hungry after that,” Ulrich added, a similar grin painting his own features.

I shook my head. “I didn’t even want to think about eating. Seeing Jeremie—yes—made me almost relive that day with Jim’s boot camp.”

Moments after I finished my sentence, I could hear a low, angry growl coming from another seat in the van. Glancing over, I saw Hunter with his hands over his face, and immediately realized he must have seen my mishap through the monster; that look told me how greatly he thought of it, almost without reading his mind.

Ulrich noticed this, too, as he also sent a curious glance in Hunter’s direction. “How did you ever fool Jim into thinking you were actually healthy enough to go to his commando camp? You spent most of the night passed out in the bathroom!”

“To quote you: ‘To tell you the truth, I don’t really know,’ Samurai. I awoke that day to hear Aelita screaming in concern right next to me. Funny how when I woke from my coma, I distinctly heard her scream again, but in more of an excited tone of voice, then another voice, then Odd saying ‘Cassidy’s eyelids just moved!’ in the exact tone when he fooled her into thinking the robots moved and then when they actually did,” I said, rapidly grasping at straws to change the subject for Hunter’s benefit. “Then I heard everyone encouraging me, even hearing two in unison.”

“We had been watching you for a few months,” Aelita explained, smiling warmly, “waiting for you to wake up, especially after your pulse rose to normal speed. So when you started to move, I was beside myself with excitement, that I almost couldn’t hold it back. Your timing was wonderful.”

“I guess it was since the doctors—Uh, I mean, it was?” I smiled uneasily, trying to keep it from going into a direction Hunter did not want it to.

“It sure was!” Einstein tried to play along, putting on the best smile he could muster. “Everyone in the room was ecstatic to have you back. Even the doctors and hospital security were glad to see you.”

“Doctor Chantal did say she was happy to see me,” I grinned. “I may not have been all there yet, but I thought it was sweet of her to say.”

“I almost thought I was still in a fog when you woke,” Ulrich added next. “I thought, ‘Wait, Cassidy can’t be waking up, can she? Odd’s pulled something like this on us before…’”

“Well, I didn’t read that thought,” I mused. “In fact, for at least a day, until Jeremie’s mom and dad arrived, I couldn’t read any human minds. I thought it was a bit weird.”

“Your powers were recharging, that’s all,” Jeremie tried to reassure me, reaching over to pat me on the shoulder.

“True. The first power was re-reading animal minds, and that helped when Kiwi entered the room,” I giggled.

From his position in _mi novio’s_ lap, Kiwi lifted his head. “I did say ‘Hi, guys!’ to you when I barked. I especially loved seeing Odd, Master, again.”

In response, my wildcard softly stroked the dog’s head and back, gazing down at him. “And I was so glad to see you again, my little talking, winged diggity-dog!”

“I loved it when you all said my name happily,” he panted happily.

“Well, you are a cuddly and lovable dog,” Hunter remarked, slowly beginning to smile, as he placed his hands on his lap. “Of course they were happy to see you.”

“Of course he is,” I giggled, but gradually found myself in a fix. “He even helped me through—never mind. He was great in Aelita’s lap when—oh for two, not important. Um...he helped Odd with his laser arrows?”

“He’s just a great dog, full stop,” Hunter jumped in, trying to help me avoid saying things he might not want to hear. “Like the mascot for the Lyoko Warriors, or something.”

“I’m so sorry, Hunter. I’m trying…”

He sighed, turning his gaze toward his khaki-colored cargo pants. “I know… If I wasn’t so picky, you wouldn’t have to walk on eggshells around me… I just want to keep everyone in a good mood, that’s all. Especially with where we’re going, and what we might be doing, in the upcoming days.”

“It’s okay, Hunter,” Aelita soothed. “She just remembers a lot of things like I do.”

He nodded, slowly. “Yeah, I know the feeling…”

“I was even told I remember to the most obscure detail. Like I still remember the blue stuff Odd pushed Ulrich in was like gelatin, hair gel, or jam, depending on whose point of view it was,” I blinked. “I’m just glad that I didn’t get my nose full of the stuff, but—wait… I was a bit klutzy that day, and as I tripped, my fingers touched...it…” I shook my head. “It was so weird. XANA somehow managed to surpass wherever my powers began and block them from helping me, Ulrich, or anyone. Sister even helped me…”

“I still don’t know how XANA managed to mess with your psychic powers, instead of making you lose your memory like Ulrich, Cat Girl,” Odd commented, still feeling quite confused about the whole thing.

“I did lose my memory, Odd. I almost—never mind, three is an uneven number.”

“Well, I couldn’t just let you walk around Kadic like you had no idea where you were, or even what you were doing, my dear sister,” Sister spoke up. Even though she had forgotten about that day initially, the monster put it back into her head. “If only it hadn’t happened to Ulrich sweetheart, either!”

“I am glad that you helped me, even though I don’t remember all of it yet,” I smiled gratefully.

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out someday,” Aelita suggested soothingly, before transitioning to a different topic. “Maybe it’ll come to you during a dream? And that makes me wonder what everyone’s plans are, once we get to the hotel.”

“I would love to have a good meal, and then sleep for the night.” Even though I had napped throughout the trip, I felt as though I could do with a more restful slumber. “We did have a long journey.”

“That’s a great idea,” Ulrich agreed, understanding my point. “We should all get a chance to sleep in, tomorrow.”

“The spa doesn’t open until noon, so there’s no rush to open your eyes,” Jeb smiled. “And speaking of the hotel, we’re here.”

Sure enough, he was right. As most of us clamored around the van’s side windows, we watched Georgina pull into the parking lot for a hotel that really looked quite fancy on the outside. It was four stories tall and looked like it had hundreds upon hundreds of rooms. There was even a ritzy fountain in front of the drive-up area, giving the entire place an air of sophistication.

“Wow…” I whispered. “That’s so cool.”

Sister grinned from ear to ear, as she beheld the building. “It’s even better-looking than I imagined!”

Georgina parked in front of the automatic doors. “I just need to get us checked into our rooms,” she smiled gently, but I could feel she was about ready to yawn. Several hours driving after getting done inspecting a dozen frazzled used-to-be kidnapped teenagers and their dog possibly took it out of her. I couldn’t blame her. It had been one heck of an adventure, and there was more in store.

As the warm, loving, former whitecoat disappeared through the sliding doors that led into the hotel’s lobby, our attention soon turned to what was in store for us, once we were all checked in, and settled down.

“I can’t wait to get massaged,” Kiwi said at once, telling everyone in the van what was on his mind.

In reply, Ulrich chuckled a bit, as he grinned at his original roommate’s dog. “Just make sure you don’t do that around the masseuses. Otherwise, the only massages you’ll get will be from either Odd or Cassidy.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t even want them to think they became—how did Aelita call herself one time—nutcases,” the puppy woofed.

My former first roommate giggled a bit at this. “As long as you don’t bury their massage oils in the ground out behind the hotel, you should be fine, Kiwi.”

“Hey, I still have some burying instincts in me,” he panted.

“Guys! Calm down,” I blinked, unsure if hostility was about to unfurl in front of us.

That was when Odd put his arm around my back. “We are calm, Cat Girl. My diggity-dog is just kidding.”

“Sorry,” I grinned sheepishly, my wings threatening to break my new shirt. “I guess I mixed up a signal.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hunter tried to reassure me, before adding, “and that reminds me… How many rooms are they going to give us? I mean, that’s probably a stupid thing to ask, but… part of me is kinda curious.”

“For this night and tomorrow night only, Hunter, you, Jeremie, and Ulrich will share a suite; Kaitlyn, Patrick, William and Sam will take another; Sissi, Aelita, Yumi, Cassidy, Odd, and Kiwi will have the third; Max will take the fourth with Fang and the others; and Georgina, Ari, and I will sleep in the fifth suite. We made arrangements that if one needs another, the rooms will be within the vicinity,” Jeb answered. “Plus, the suite interior is super spacious.”

“That’s great!” Yumi chimed in with a grin. “It sounds like it shouldn’t be too much of a problem if the suites are as big as they say.”

As Yumi talked, I looked through the windshield, seeing Max and her flock land in succession. Right away, a grin flitted across her face as she congratulated her makeshift family for a job well done so far. Nudge jumped up and down, seemingly about to chatter her leader’s ear off before Iggy patted her shoulder to bring her down to Earth, so to speak. And then, I saw it: Max held out her left fist, to which the others responded with stacking them up as I had read in the books. Their right hands or paws (depending on who was there) tapped them twice. My heart exploded with warmth and joy. Sure, the smuggling into the States wasn’t the best in the world, but to see that made my inner fangirl tingle with excitement, which almost spread to my wings.

Just as they finished, Angel looked in my direction, a smile on her face. _Tomorrow, you can relax, Cassidy._

Raising my mental shields to send my thoughts to her, I nodded. _Thanks, Angel._

The little smile she had grew into a grin. Yes, Aelita smiling in the hospital when it was just her as the patient always made me believe she was cute, but Angel was seven-years-old. She was also cute in her own right. But I knew that Max thought of her as her baby.

It was while I was lost in my thoughts, that I heard the high-pitched voice of _mi novio_ gently pull me from them, and send a blush to my cheeks. “You should see how your whole face lights up, when you smile like that, Cat Girl.”

I giggled. “Like you should have seen yours when Ulrich confronted you about that empty rumor about Emily and Jim. You looked so cat-gone cute!”

“Hey, Cassidy, you can say doggone,” Kiwi yipped. “I just don’t want to hear doggie bag.”

“Right,” I beamed, as a few of the others giggled.

Odd laughed at that, as well. “You were there, Cassidy! You remember why I said that!”

“I do, Odd. You know how my powers worked. At least I told Emily that the rumors weren’t true and that it was just a cover-up, so you didn’t get hit too hard.” I playfully pushed him.

“Didn’t you get hit in the shoulder?” Ulrich asked out of worry.

“Only because I stood as stiff as a board in the middle of the soccer field and the ball hit me square,” I shrugged. “Good thing Yolanda was able to relocate it.”

That memory came right back to _mi novio_ , along with the moment of impact, which made him wince, almost as if he could feel my pain. All because my psychic powers just froze me right where I was, something that would be disastrous for me, not to mention the others, on other occasions, even though it was scarce.

“I’m glad she had a gentle touch. It helped,” I smiled.

However, just as quickly as it came on, a grin soon replaced it. “That’s Yolanda for you! Always there when you need her.”

“Yes,” Aelita agreed, a smile gracing her features as well.

“I know she helped me a lot with—never mind, um…something Yumi twice taught me in the Skid,” I grinned uneasily, swearing that if I had pony ears, they’d be down as my comfort retreated.

While I could tell Hunter was nervously, and reluctantly flipping through any of the memories featuring me that he was shown by the monster, I could also tell it only took Yumi a quick moment to realize what I meant. So, to throw Hunter off from my trail further, she pretended to guess at what I could have meant by that.

“The one about the number four?” she asked, her delivery a bit stilted like she was reading from a script. “Or was it about the gift-giving?”

I squinted an eye, a bit confused at first, before realizing the choices given to me. “Uh… Yeah! The number _cuatro_.”

Hunter looked up, trying to stop himself from mentally searching for what I must have meant, before taking that suggestion as a hint. “Uh, cuat—oh, yeah… four… because it sounds like the word for death… That’s why they say _yon_ instead, right? And _nana,_ instead of _shichi_ , for seven?”

Yumi nodded, with a smile on her face. “That’s right. Because seven sounds just like it, too.”

“Ya learn something new every day,” I commented offhandedly, grinning.

Odd couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “Well, whaddya know? Hunter knows Japanese culture, too!”

“Yeah, I didn’t know you knew that,” Yumi commented, Odd’s chuckles making her grin a bit more. “How much about Japan do you know, Hunter?”

Hunter rubbed the top of his head a bit. “Eh, only a few things. I mean, I couldn’t hold a conversation with someone like yourself in Japanese, but I can count somewhat high, and I know a few words and some of the things they do over there. It’s pretty interesting.”

“Almost reminds me of one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Kadic in the first place, Hunter. I loved French culture,” I giggled. “I just never knew that I’d become a hero of France, and the world by proxy, until the very day I stood in front of the gates. Something came over me that day, and now… I’m glad to have great friends.”

Jeremie looked a bit surprised by that, as he let out a sheepish chuckle. “I, uh… don’t think any of us ever thought we’d become that, either… all because of that one day, October 9th, 2004… but if I hadn’t turned that on, and if you hadn’t given me, as well as most of us tips that day, I don’t think we’d ever have great friends like these ones.”

“Well, the day before that fateful night, I was standing there, feeling nervous about the usual stuff. Then… I don’t know if I can really explain it without making you think I’m crazy…”

Aelita turned to look at me, giving me a calm, reassuring smile. “It’s okay, Cassidy. You don’t have to tell us.”

“Besides,” Odd added, gazing out the side window, “suite keys for everybody!”

Sure enough, Georgina had left the hotel lobby, and was walking back toward us, holding a packet, which I assumed contained key cards, in her hand. First, she stopped in front of Max, giving her four of the cards, while mouthing what I could make out was the room number. Next, she walked over to the van, opening the side door, before reaching into the packet. At first the opening of the door made me flinch, but I mentally reminded myself that both A) we were on the way to Baltimore to get back to France, and not going back to The School, and B) no one was going to shoot out while the van was in park, settling my nerves.

“For you, Cassidy,” Georgina commented, pulling a key card out of the packet and handing it to me. “Yours, Aelita’s, Yumi’s, Sissi’s, Odd’s, and Kiwi’s suite will be room number 109.”

“Thanks, Georgina,” I said, gratefully taking my key card from the former whitecoat.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart.” She bent over and gently kissed the top of my forehead, sending waves of love throughout my system. She then continued on, handing out key cards to the others, telling them what room numbers their suites were, finishing by handing Hunter the last key card for the suite he would be sharing with Ulrich and Jeremie, and giving the black-haired programmer a gentle kiss on his forehead as well, something I could tell he enjoyed, too.

“Oh, she’s so wonderful…” he commented, looking and sounding somewhat love-struck.

“ _Sí, lo sé._ I know, right?” I giggled, feeling the same way.

Yumi couldn’t help but laugh as well, grinning from ear to ear from the entire sequence. Georgina was almost like a loving, caring mother, the way she treated each of us, but the way Hunter and I reacted, just from getting forehead kisses was just too cute for words, in her case.

“Let’s get inside,” I sighed happily, not even caring if I was aware of my words or not.

“Great idea!” Aelita agreed, grinning as she looked at the key card she was given. “I’ve never stayed at a hotel that had suites before. I wonder how big they are?”

“I once had been in a hotel suite that had two rooms in one,” I noted, still in my happiness, “so I’d say it could be pretty big.”

“And by the looks of the size of this hotel,” Jeremie added, surveying the hotel’s walls, “I think I would have to agree with you, Cassidy.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt, as I got ready to leave the van. “But the good news is that we can stretch our legs, too…”

“Faaaan-tastic!” _mi novio_ exclaimed, wasting no time unbuckling his seatbelt as well.

Before I could pay heed to him, my feet met solid concrete, sending my legs groaning in relief. “Ooh…” I smiled. “That feels good.”

The others slowly began filing out of the van in a somewhat orderly fashion, stretching their arms and legs as they did, finding they felt the same sort of sensation I did.

 _You said it_ , Ulrich agreed in his mind.

“Traveling across three states with very little rest tends to have that effect,” Jeremie commented, his voice straining as he stretched his arms into the air.

Before I could open my mouth, Odd jumped in, “Speak for yourself. Cat Girl got some rest on the way over here, Einstein.”

Jeremie chuckled, as he rolled his arms, next. “That’s true; however, she hasn’t exactly had a chance to stretch her legs before now, either.”

“Just once, but that was before the nap,” I shrugged, smiling from the fact that my neck didn’t hurt.

“You’re right,” Aelita agreed in her usual soothing voice. “Jeremie was referring to the fact that none of us have had a chance to move around very much, since we stopped off, a few hours ago.”

“Ah. No problem,” I nodded. “I can’t wait to get in and get something to eat.”

Odd flashed me an excited grin. “You read my mind, Cat Girl! Nothing like a big buffet, before a date with my pillow!”

Before I could agree with him, my stomach growled in reply. “Odd… _novio..._ you’re still cursing me…” I play-whined.

Of course, all _he_ could do was laugh at me. “See? Even _your stomach_ agrees with me! That’s how I know you’re my girlfriend!”

“Even if I had nothing to eat except breakfast, Odd?” I challenged, as I softly approached him.

He calmed down but kept his usual Cheshire Cat-style grin. “Well, none of us have, either! So you and every single one of your good buddies in the whole wide world can enjoy a nice, big, warm, heaping plate of meatballs and gravy!”

“Or whatever I feel like craving, right?” I giggled, almost toe-to-toe with him. But before he could go on, I pressed my lips against his forehead, giving him a gentle kiss.

“But why would—” He began, before my kiss cut him off in mid-sentence. A dreamy look soon found its way to his face, as he let out a sigh of contentment. “Yeah… anything you want, Cat Girl…”

“You definitely have him wrapped around your finger, Cassidy,” Yumi giggled, folding her arms.

I twirled my finger, as though I had the keys to the van, or to a lesser extent, a moped. “What can I say, Yumi? I’ve only dated two guys, and they’re right here with us.”

It only took Odd a few seconds to come out of his love-induced high, as his love-struck grin returned to normal. “That’s right! And she saved the best for last!”

“You’re the one who helped me get back to normal after what happened in the span of months,” I playfully shot back, giggling.

His grin widened at this. “That’s just the magical Odd effect! You take one look into my eyes, and all your troubles just melt away!”

I giggled more. “I thought that was only applicable to knowing you forever…”

That started both Ulrich and Aelita giggling. Just that bit, along with part of what _mi novio_ said, was something they remembered all too well, from one particular day in the cafeteria before my former first roommate found out that Franz was her father.

While he had spent that part of the day in the laboratory, Jeremie had only seen what Odd, Ulrich, Aelita and I did in the cafeteria during that time because of the monster. It still gave him mixed feelings, anyway.

“Ugh…” He let out a quiet grunt, his expression one of worry. “With that polymorphic specter, XANA taking control of the tower I activated, and where Yumi found you, without Franz Hopper’s help, I don’t think we would have gotten _anything_ done that day.”

“Yeah, it was a really crazy day, Jeremie.” I raised my right hand and subconsciously rubbed my left shoulder, still remembering what XANA’s specter did to me that afternoon. “Thanks for waiting that extra day. I really felt too out of it to even think about listening to what you wanted to say.”

“Of course!” Jeremie replied affirmatively, remembering just how out of it I really was when Yumi brought me back to the dorm. “I wasn’t going to reveal the important information from Franz Hopper’s diary if not everyone was able to comprehend it. Especially when you think about everything that was inside.”

“Hey, if I didn’t try to keep myself awake with Nickelback in that storm drain, I probably wouldn’t have survived,” I blinked. “Plus that sedative really knocked me out of the park. After Yumi saved me, I couldn’t tell mice from dice.”

“XANA threw you a real curve ball that day, Cat Girl,” Odd recalled, a tiny bit of surprise in his voice.

“At least we won’t have to worry about that anymore,” Aelita soothed, getting us back on track. “With XANA still asleep, it’s bound to be a long time before he ever gets that powerful, again.”

 “Aelita’s right,” Ulrich agreed. “We’re here to relax before we get back to Kadic.”

“I guess I should think about what treatments I would love to go through tomorrow,” I smiled.

Sister giggled at that. “We’ll have all the rest of today, and all tomorrow morning to figure that out! I can’t wait to see our suites!”

We needed no better reason to head inside. Our luggage was soon brought up to our suites, and we settled in. They were really quite spacious; each one had six different rooms, including separate bedrooms, a good-sized kitchen, a decent-sized bathroom with a hot tub in one corner, a big shower with three showerheads in a glass enclosure, a bathtub that could probably fit five, with water jets, and a four-person vanity, three dressers, five queen-sized double beds in each suite, multiple flat-screen LCD TVs, each sitting on the dresser drawers, and each of the beds were dressed with linens and pillows that looked really soft and inviting. So soft, in fact, that once Jeremie’s fingers took them in, he began to seriously consider getting the “cushy chair” at the factory reupholstered, when we got back to Kadic, to match the feel of them. None of us expected anything quite like this.

“Wow… this is ritzier than the rec room,” Sister exhumed.

I sat on the bed, rubbing the sheets in my hands. “Comfy…”

After Sam helped him up on a separate one, Kiwi panted happily, “Oh, yes… I agree with you there, Cassidy…”

I couldn’t help but giggle at this, as Sister walked over to one of the dressers, which had a phone, as well as a couple of fliers on it. Taking one, which turned out to be a room service menu, she picked up the phone and made a call, passing the menu around to each of us, as we all decided what we were going to eat. The menu had a large selection of food, spanning different tastes, and even different cultures and nationalities, pleasing Yumi significantly. Because of this, everyone was able to find at least one thing they wanted to eat.

Each of us took our turn ordering what we wanted for supper, and were given a relatively reasonable time-frame before the food arrived. We wasted no time getting ourselves ready for bed, figuring we would plop into our soft, cushiony, cloud-like beds, not long after we finished eating. Soon we sat around and talked, exchanging memories, critiquing our trip, and even just talked about whatever we felt like—most of our respective boyfriends, for example, before the bell hops brought the food carts up, and we dug in.

The food here… Let me just say that the taste was nothing like I expected; absolutely exquisite. Of course, when someone stays at a fancy hotel, they almost expect the food to be as good as the experience, and this was that, and then some. I could even see the metaphorical hearts manifesting in _mi novio’s_ eyes as he chowed down, as he often thought Rosa’s cuisine was like Red Lobster. We all took our time as we chewed, enjoying each dish, as we weren’t quite sure when we would have food this good, again. Of course, the way Jeb was taking care of everything, we’d probably have some great food ahead of us before we got back to Kadic.

Once our food was finished, we each waited a good hour, not wanting to sleep with food on our stomachs, before going in to brush our teeth all at once, enjoying the wonderfully large vanity. Next was a trip back out into the bedroom, where Georgina was waiting, and once we had climbed into the beds, which were as cushiony, plush and incredibly soft as they looked, if not more so, she gave us each a soothing, soft, gentle and relaxing back and side rub, slowly sliding her hands under our shirts to caress our bare skin and feathers, increasing the relaxation by quite a bit. Some of us even fell asleep as we were rubbed, which only made Georgina giggle quietly, knowing how exhausted we all were.

As her hands soothingly and softly caressed the skin and feathers on my back, and the skin on my sides, I slowly felt myself drift away in much the same way. Sure, the day was quite eventful and even scary at times, but it was the endings like this that made things well again.

Of course, that would only go so far…

 


	18. Of Nightmares and Spa Treatments, Part 1

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s.**

Was there ever an experience that ended up leaking into your subconsciousness like a broken pipe? Something so strong that nothing could stop it? And any attempt to take back control was ripped from your hands?

Well, despite the soothing rub from Georgina that plunged me deep into dreamland… that’s exactly what happened. It’s anyone’s guess how something so gentle and relaxing couldn’t stave off something terrible like what I dreamed of that night.

I felt as though I was falling through the air, only to be stopped by a hard impact. My eyes widened as I slowly realized where my dream landed me.

The floor and ceiling had been covered with black and white tiles, forming a checkerboard pattern, separated and bookended by blank, slate gray walls. I looked up to find a big, long chalkboard returning my gaze, hanging from a dark green wall, and framed on both sides by menacing statues.

I struggled to move when it hit me: I was in one of the specially designed chairs the _Teen Titans_ were in. It was made of wood, with its arms and back molded into the shape of an abstract lion, and its legs as coils, which immediately wrapped themselves around my ankles. My arms and hands were atop those of the abstract lion, right down to the hidden cuffs and round, balled fist at the end. I was locked in pretty tight. But I wasn’t a superhero. My powers were minimal compared to those of Starfire or Raven; why was I in this predicament?

Suddenly, the chalkboard sprang to life, as white, chalk-like outlines began to appear as if the board knew how to draw upon itself. In a matter of seconds, a face started to take form, but not that of Mad Mod, who I expected; instead… it was someone familiar. Someone equally as evil, if not unhinged.

I tried to close my eyes and take back control, when two tiny wooden hands, connected to the top of the chair, grabbed onto my eyelids and forced them open.

His lips moved on the chalkboard, the face being more than just a drawing. “Now how do you expect to learn anything if you won’t sit still and listen?”

“ _Reilly!_ ” I growled, the ambient light in the room reflecting off my gritted teeth. “You won’t get away with haunting my every dream like this!”

“Oh, tut, tut, Cassidy!” His chalkboard caricature smiled evilly. “You and your friends escaped before we got started, but maybe we should head back to basics for you.”

The sides of my lips pulled back like a curtain, revealing my rear teeth, almost like a victim of indoctrination looking at another, unrelated indoctrinator using children to draw out the hero of the story. “We are _not_ lab rats, Reilly!! You _can’t_ keep torturing us like this!!”

“Oh, you think I’m haunting _everybody_?” He chuckled slyly. “No. Just _you_ …”

If my eyes hadn’t already been forced open, they would have widened even further. “ _Whaaat?!_ ”

“You see, your friends have been lying to you. They _do_ blame you for everything you did. The kidnapping, the vortex…”

My scowl morphed into a frown of guilt, but it only lasted for a brief second, as I quickly remembered that my friends had conviction in their voices when they told me it wasn’t my fault that my powers unleashed the monster.

“No!” I shot back, refusing to let him get the upper hand. “They’re not! And that is the real fact! You don’t know them!”

His outline began to move back and forth across the chalkboard, giving the impression that he was pacing. “Oh, Cassidy, have you forgotten that _they_ kept the vortex _and_ your coma a secret, until a month _and_ a quarter after the fact?”

I threw it back at him, growling like a Thunderbird’s engine being revved. “I wasn’t in the right mindset back then! My friends were right about my sensibilities _then_ just like they are _now!!_ ”

“ _Are_ they now?” He raised his brows, almost as though he was trying to throw me into doubt, before a grin, almost as though _mi ex novio_ was taunting me into climbing the rock wall while I had vertigo, flitted across his face. “Maybe I could shed some _light_ on the matter.”

As if the phenomenon was at his beck and call, a pink, purple, black, and white vortex mysteriously appeared in the center of the room, one that would have made my eight friends break the sound barrier with their screams of fear. Strangely, however, the sounds of swirling air were absent, as virtual manifestations of Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, Patrick, and Kaitlyn watched the vortex in awe.

“My friends…” I whispered, unable to reach out before my voice gradually rose into a shout. “Aelita! Jeremie! Odd! Yumi! Ulrich! Patrick! Kaitlyn!”

A new voice, one that was shrill, and high-pitched, entered the void. “This is _your_ fault!”

Even though I was practically alone, and the only one who “kept me company” was a chalkboard drawing, my chair mysteriously spun around to face Sister.

“Sister!” I cried out. “What do you mean? This is so confusing!”

“ _You_ heard me!” Sister bellowed out, her eyes metaphorically cutting slits into my body. “It’s _all your fault!_ _You’re_ the one who unleashed this mess on us! Thanks to _you_ , my dear Ulrich and I ended up sedated by hospital security, while trying to save _your_ worthless life!”

“B-but…”

Then, another entered the void; this time, it was none other than Ulrich. Strangely, just like Sissi, he also seemed quite upset.

“If it hadn’t been for _you_ ,” he growled at me, folding his arms, “Yumi and I wouldn’t have been held down by hospital security, either, just because _you_ wouldn’t wake up, and we _would have saved Lyoko!_ But _nooooo! You_ had to go and freeze as though a Blok shot an ice ray at you! I can’t believe you think you’re a Lyoko Warrior!”

“U-Ulrich…” My words came out as though he had sucker-punched me instead.

And it was only about to get worse.

The next one to appear was his beloved _novia,_ Yumi. Like the two that came before her, her expression wasn’t nice in the slightest. As she balled her hands into fists, I watched her scowl at me.

“You go ahead and freeze up, okay?!” Her words were like thorns that pricked every inch of my body. “We’ll just stay over here and fight like _you_ should be doing!! After all, that’s all you’re good for, isn’t it?! We take out XANA, while _you_ sit back, and _crumble into a million pieces!_ And it’s all because you _had_ to go and fall into the Digital Sea, that one time! Don’t you think you would know _not to shove a MegaTank_ when you’re _that_ close to a pit?! Maybe we should have _left_ you _permanently virtualized!!_ ”

My words died in my throat as the chair released my eyelids. Freed from that, I turned my head, only to see Odd, _mi novio_ , with his back turned. To my slight relief, he said nothing… at least at first.

But even that didn’t last long, and his seething words began to dice what was left of my constitution. “You know something, _Cat Girl?_ I’ve been counting _every_ single time I’ve had to save your ungrateful self, and I don’t think I’ve _ever_ had to count _that_ high! I don’t even think I have as many _laser arrows_ as that! And to think, I actually _loved_ you! Maybe it wasn’t _William_ who was unfaithful… we should’ve left you alone in front of the administration building, with everyone just pointing and laughing at you! Yeah! _That’s_ what you deserved!”

“Un-ungrateful? U-unfaithful…?” I shook my head. _Where did he get_ those words _from?_

“Maybe you shouldn’t have become my roommate!” The next voice appeared to be Aelita, who looked even angrier than she had when Jeremie tried to tell her that her father was nowhere to be found on Lyoko. “Then I might’ve actually gotten some peace and quiet every night! I wouldn’t have had to deal with your _stupid, inane visions!_ Always ‘oh, Aelita, you’re going to get captured by the Schyphozoa,’ or ‘oh, Aelita, XANA has it in for you,’ or even my favorite, ‘oh, Aelita, XANA’s going to pretend to be Franz Hopper, your father!’ Maybe I _should_ have let the Schyphozoa take my memory! Then I wouldn’t have had to deal with _YOU!!_ ”

“B-bu-but, Aelita—”

“Don’t you _dare_ talk to her!” Walking up beside her, Jeremie wore a scowl, almost mirroring the one that he did when we fought. “You have absolutely _no_ right to address my beautiful princess!! That right was taken away from you when you told the _entire world OUR SECRET!!_ We _trusted_ you, Cassidy René McGuire! _All eight of us did!!_ And you let _all_ of us down!! Thanks to you, the whitecoats were able to localize us, and _kidnap us!!_ Do you know what this means?! _Do you have any idea what this all means?!_ We’re going to launch a Return to the Past, and _this time_ , you will _NEVER_ enter our timeline, _EVER AGAIN!!!!_ ”

My head immediately jerked to the left, as I gazed into the dark abyss that the others had mysteriously walked in through. No sooner had Jeremie finished his sentence, then the void brightened up, revealing what looked to be the lab from the factory. It looked nearly identical, right down to the elevator door. Even the holomap bowl was alive with a map of all five sectors.

However, the most interesting part was the supercomputer itself, and who appeared to be sitting in front of it. It was a bearded man in a white lab coat, whom I recognized right away.

“Franz! Oh, thank goodness. You’ve gotta find a way to—”

Before I could finish my plea for help, he swiveled the motorized chair around so he could face me, with an angry look on his face, that was easy to spot, despite his glasses, and the fact that his facial hair had swallowed most of the lower half of his face.

“Silence!” he bellowed, his voice reminding me of a great lion. “I believe the only thing _I’ll_ be doing, is taking care of the Return to the Past. You, my dear, have been a thorn in our side, since you helped Jeremie discover the supercomputer. They’ve led you to believe that you’ve been a great help, with your so-called psychic abilities, and how you’ve saved them from their own self-created problems… but we all know better. Nothing has been the same ever since your arrival. Many things have changed, and none have done so for the better. Even my dear angel has had to pay the ultimate price, all because _you_ had disappeared into the Celestial Dome when your help was needed most! _You_ , yes you, are fortunate that _I_ happened to be there, to revive her, before even more terrible things befell her, and Lyoko, all because _YOU FREED XANA!!”_

A mixture of surprise, fear, disgust, upset, and disappointment kept my face held taut, as Aelita’s father whirled himself back around to face the supercomputer, unleashing his hands upon its keyboard.

“And now we’re going to fix the problem: _YOU!_ We’re going to make sure that you _never_ have the chance to _disgrace_ us with your presence _EVER AGAIN!!_ ”

As he continued to type, I heard Jeremie’s angry words from behind my chair:

“So goodbye, and good riddance!”

At that moment, all of the nightmare characters slowly began to approach me, circling around me, coming ever closer. Within their eyes I could see terror, as if they truly meant business, and wanted nothing more than to do away with me, figuring it would erase all of their problems.

“N-no… pl-please… D-don’t…”

As my “friends” neared ever closer, Reilly’s chalk likeness disappeared from the chalkboard, before a chalk sketch of the Return to the Past program, looking exactly like it did on the supercomputer, appeared in his place, as a timer began to count down to October 9th, 2004. My eyes widened as I read this horrifying date: it was the day I first met Jeremie! From the way things appeared, they indeed were going to erase me from their timeline permanently, by changing the sequences of events that happened that day, so I never met the blond genius I’ve come to know, respect, and adore.

Yet, just as they were inches from my body…

Something—or should I say, _someone_ —shattered my nightmare to pieces.

“Cassidy? Wake up…” It was a calm, gentle, soothing voice, one that almost sounded like a soft back rub. I knew it all too well: it was my former first roommate, Aelita.

Unfortunately, instead of silently shooting from my covers, I screamed, launched myself out of the suite’s bed, and rocketed straight into a nearby wall. For a moment, after landing on the floor, my vision swirled around, and I shook my head. “Ugh…”

“Cassidy? Are you okay?” Aelita initially looked worried but managed to find some humor in the situation. “It looks like Odd installed the ejector bed in the wrong spot.”

“I think this guy owes me five Sickles…” I pointed in the wall’s general direction, my hand and finger shaking from the impact.

“Five sickles _and_ a blade sharpener!” Odd jumped in, walking over by me. “Oh well, I guess I’ll have to turn it back a bit. You took quite the hit there, Cat Girl.”

“S-sorry…” I whispered, my body unexpectedly tensing up.

Before I could raise myself to my feet, I felt a pair of gentle hands land upon my shoulders, which happened to belong to Yumi. She bore a slightly surprised look as she glanced into my eyes. “Cassidy, are you okay?”

“Bad dream, really scary…” I muttered, shaking like a leaf.

Next to Yumi, Kiwi came leisurely walking up, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. “Looks to me like you could use a belly rub this time, Cassidy!”

I nodded, still really spooked.

And the next voice I heard didn’t help things any. Interestingly, our banter had managed to wake Sister, who wasn’t all that happy.

“Ooh…! _WHO WAS THAT SCREAMING?! And_ _WHO’S_ the dork that _WHACKED_ the wall, while I was trying to get my _BEAUTY SLEEP?!_ ” she gave an angry yell, as she stormed out of her bed, glaring at the five of us.

Of course, no sooner had her eyes beheld me, then her attitude softened up nearly instantly like someone had flipped a switch in her brain, as she ran to my side. “Oh, my dear _sister!_ Are you alright? Did somebody wake you up the wrong way?”

I shook my head, but instead, tears fell down my face, scared she would hurt me the way her nightmare form did to me, my body totally tensed up.

As my hands covered my eyes, I heard a worried squeak leave her lips, before she embraced me in a warm, soothing cuddle. “Oh, there, there… don’t cry, sister dear… did I make you upset?”

“She had a bad nightmare, Sissi,” Aelita soothed, trying to set the peace. “I was getting up to go to the bathroom when I saw her getting tangled up in her bedsheets.”

“Ohhh…” Sister’s voice was filled with concern, as she began to softly and slowly rub my back, comfortingly.

Before any of us could make the next move or sentence, a knock came at our door.

“Who is it?” Odd sang, trying to sound as though he was lightening the mood.

A light chuckle emanated from behind the door. “Good ole reliable Ulrich to the rescue.”

“And Hunter and Jeremie,” a half-masculine, half-feminine voice came in next. “Can we come in?”

Aelita giggled slightly. “Of course, Jeremie.” She got up and opened the door, letting Einstein, a shaken Hunter, and Samurai in.

Upon first sight, Jeremie let out a sigh of relief. “We heard screaming and a huge bang. Is everyone okay?”

“Just one of us had a nightmare,” Odd reported, pointing over to me, still crying. “And she’s still shaken up by it. I barely got within two feet of her, and she started to tighten up. My feet haven’t started smelling again, have they?”

Ulrich shook his head. “Nah. Besides, we didn’t smell anything over in our room so it couldn’t have been.”

I lifted my head, my eyes beholding the Einstein of our group, and sobbed harder into Sister’s nightshirt. “Please d-don’t wipe m-my memory! And d-don’t m-make F-Franz d-d-do it...”

Looks of shock and surprise overtook Jeremie’s and Hunter’s faces, while the black-haired boy began to slowly step backward.

“Do what?” Einstein uttered, confused about what I had just said. “Wipe your memory? Why on Earth would we do that?”

“I-I…”

“Did you have a Reilly nightmare?” Odd asked me, trying to understand while keeping my other one a secret.

I set my jaw, nodding into Sister’s chest. _He made you, Franz, Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, and Sister… OH, WHAT IN GOD’S NAME HAVE I DONE?!_

 _Please calm down, dear sister…_ Sister replied in her mind, as she continued to softly and slowly rub my back. _You were having a nightmare. None of it was real, and it’s all over now._

Slowly, the tension in my body was released, helping to calm my tears a bit as I looked to Jeremie, water streaming down my face. “S-sorry, J-J—Eins—”

“Don’t worry, Cassidy,” Jeremie soothed in reply, adopting a warm, calming smile. “You were having a nightmare. Whatever you think we did in your nightmare, we would never, ever do to you, or anyone else, with the exception of XANA. So relax.”

My body began to calm down further before I glanced over at Hunter. It was then that I remembered how much of a problem he would have, whenever someone talked about sad things or painful memories. He probably hated this just as much, and it only made me feel worse. “H-Hunter? I-I didn’t… mean t-to…”

Hunter raised a hand into the air, slowly starting to smile calmly. “No, no, you’re fine… that isn’t you; that’s me. This sort of thing is just kinda hard for me to handle, sometimes… it’s got nothing to do with you, so don’t worry.”

A tiny smile sprouted on my face. “Thanks.” But as fast as it came, it vanished. “I’m s-so sorry, Sister…”

“Huh?!” Sister was a bit surprised at first, but as she continued her soft, slow and gentle rub of my back, she realized what was going on. “It’s okay. I was just a bit surprised. But it’s not your fault. You’re okay, now, and that’s all that matters.”

“Y-Yumi? Aelita?”

“Try to relax, okay, Cassidy?” Yumi soothed, hers and Aelita’s faces gaining warm, calming smiles. “Whatever happened in your dream will never happen to you. You know us better than that.”

“She’s right,” Aelita agreed, reaching over to help Sister rub my back. “You’re a wonderful person, and we would never do anything like that.”

A deep breath entered my lungs as I looked at Ulrich. _Samurai?_

Ulrich merely nodded, a calm, determined smile gracing his features. _Yumi and Aelita said everything I was gonna say._

“Thanks, guys…” I whispered when someone entered the doorway.

“Okay, who decided to throw a guitar?” It was William, who looked about as with it as I had once been.

“Uh… no guitars were thrown in the making of this fanfic?” Odd quipped.

Jeremie rolled his eyes. “Odd, would you stop trying to break the fourth wall? This is real life, you know.”

But both Einstein and Ninja-Cat Boy had worked their magic, as I started throwing my head back and laughing.

Odd merely threw Jeremie a playful look. “Hey, it got Winged Cat Girl laughing, didn’t it?”

“It is better than her getting scared of Jeremie for no good reason, Odd, honey,” Sister pointed out.

“Yeah,” Hunter nodded, taking a deep breath. “I can deal with this much more easily than I can that other thing.”

“I guess I did another good job, didn’t I?” William smiled, having become more lucid.

Ulrich folded his arms, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at _mi ex novio_. “You _sure_ did, William… only this time, the only thing we have to free _you_ from is your half-awake sermons!”

Yumi found herself chuckling at her boyfriend’s wisecrack. “Yeah, right… and I guess most of us are awake… but does anybody know what time it is?”

Aelita turned her head at the analog clock on the nightstand, sounding as innocent as she did when _she_ woke Sister up at too early in the morning. “Uh, two o’clock in the morning?”

“Only _two?_ ” Sister stole a quick glance at the clock, as well. “My dear sister beat you, Aelita, honey.”

A pang of deep shame filtered into my heart, ceasing my laughing fit immediately. “Oh, Sister, I’m so sorry! I didn’t—”

She gave me a warm, calming smile, as she rested her hands on my shoulders, once more. “Don’t even _think_ about it, sister dear. You didn’t ruin anything, especially not my beauty sleep. I can always start over.”

In moments, Jeb, Max, and Ari appeared in the doorway. The father of the two looked a bit askew. “Is everyone okay?”

“Just a nightmare,” I answered, feeling sheepish. _Now we have at least a few from each suite._

“Would you like me to call Georgina?”

“No. She drove all day, but that could give me an idea to get myself a shower. It might help,” I shrugged.

“Are you sure?” Hunter asked.

“I’m going to be fine, Hunter. I just need to relax. It’s not as though I’m close to the factory at this time of night anyway.”

Ulrich looked at him. “That’s true. I can trust her.”

Raising all my mental shields, I thought, keeping a smile on my face, hiding my true facial expression, _Like you all trusted me with the secret of Lyoko, and I blew that up like it was nothing._

After a few twists of both taps, soothing, warm water began to burst forth from all three showerheads, of which there were two on opposing sides, and one in the middle, within the glass shower enclosure that was big enough to hold three, if not four. I had soon stepped inside, closing the glass door behind myself, and entered the beckoning sprays, the only place where I could think in absolute silence. Everyone else was outside the bathroom, and even if Sister had wanted to join me, whether to wash me or help me relax, this was something I needed to do by myself. Sooner or later, they were all bound to go back to sleep, and that was all I needed.

As the warm water caressed my hair, the only thing that filled my mind, even with my mental shields raised to the max, was my dream. A dream where everyone hated me and wanted me gone.

They said they had forgiven me. They told me that the monster wasn’t my fault.

But somehow that all felt like it wasn’t enough. Something, deep within me, kept telling me they were lying. I had shouted their secret to the heavens, and people in different continents, let alone different universes, had heard it. What I did was like what Sister had done in the alternate timeline, only on an infinitely grander scale. But she had only told her father, Yolanda, and Jim; I not only told them, but the rest of the school, the rest of the country, and the rest of the universe. And yet they didn’t kick me out.

Of course, who was to say they weren’t waiting until we got back to France, back to Kadic, where this entire mess started, to do just that?

No matter what they told me, that’s what all this was... my fault.

It was my fault that we had been kidnapped, Jim had been knocked out, the teachers had probably been done in the same way, and my eleven friends and I had been airlifted over thousands of miles away, to a completely different continent, to undergo tests. Because of me, every single one of us had a pair of bird wings growing out of our backs, like we were some strange, bird-human hybrids. If we hadn’t been taken out of there when we were, they were bound to do more to us, than just inject Aelita’s DNA into me.

We would still be back in France, enjoying the fruits of our labor, but only within our own little group, if that hadn’t happened. And it was all thanks to me.

“Oh, but it’s not your fault,” they’ve told me. “You weren’t in control of yourself.” But if it hadn’t been me, who _else_ would have done it? Who had the psychic abilities, before everyone else mysteriously got the ability to read minds? _Me._ Who told the entire universe about the supercomputer, Lyoko, Aelita’s past, and XANA? _Me._ Who’s probably going to have more than just a team of whitecoats and Erasers on their tail? _Me._

It was all me. That was all it ever was.

As much as it might have pained me to realize it, as more tears began to fall from my eyes, before being washed away by the gentle rains... Reilly was right.

But they were my friends, weren’t they? They had stuck with me, and I them, through all of this craziness, even before we weakened XANA. They had always been there for me, when I fell into the Digital Sea on multiple occasions, when Kiwi’s DNA was mysteriously fused with my own, when Odd and I had two clones made of each of us, each with different facets of our individual personalities...

...but what if that had all been a ruse?

Everything could have been on a hair trigger, without me even realizing it. Accidentally press the blue button, instead of the green one, and they slice my head off. I felt as though I had to walk on eggshells around them on a few occasions... maybe it was more often than I thought.

Are any of them really my friends? Sister pretended to care about me, but how do I know her behavior is really genuine? She hadn’t honestly given up on Ulrich, and I was sure of it. He might have become Yumi’s boyfriend, but since they rarely showed each other affection, beyond the usual smiles, blushes and very rare hugs, she probably thought he was still available, and she was just doing that to avoid something worse.

Yumi might act like a big sister, but for all I knew, she might think I was worse than her little brother, Hiroki. After all, he would tell on her plenty of times, to their parents... so of course, she would lose all control, the moment I tell them... “it’s not my fault,” huh?

Ulrich liked to try and protect me like I’m something to be protected... but that was Aelita. Aelita was the only one who can actually do something useful, while on Lyoko. What could I do? Fall into the Digital Sea? Get them all in trouble? Freeze when my XANAfied _ex-novio_ came onto the scene?

And Jeremie? Sure, he had gotten me out of computer-related jams, and even helped me with my schoolwork on many an occasion, but he probably felt as though he was indebted to me, somehow. I told him all about the supercomputer, the factory, and Aelita, back when everyone thought she was just an artificial intelligence. How many times have I screwed up around him? I was sure he really enjoyed separating Kiwi’s DNA from my own, or merging Tracy and Chessy back into my body, along with Alexx and Hunterr into Odd’s. Nobody could tell me, with a straight face, that Jeremie performed each of those actions with a smile on his face, and a song in his heart. I wouldn’t believe it, because I know it wasn’t true.

Then there’s Odd... oh, sure, he had made me laugh on multiple occasions, been there for me when things have been really crazy, like when William broke up with me... but he never had any special reason for doing that, did he? I was just there. I thought his jokes were funny. I softened Ulrich up to his arrival. But did I really deserve any of his love, if that was even what it was, or special attention?

I couldn’t have. After everything I did... William was right to break up with me.

I didn’t really need anyone. After all, I was only there to set them up to fail, wasn’t I?

I was sure Patrick and Kaitlyn think so well of their cousin’s friend, don’t they? When they saw the monster in the sky, I was willing to bet that all they could think of, was, “wow, she’s such a terrible person...”

What about Sam? She had started going to Kadic as a boarder, shortly after this mess began... I was sure she’s so glad to be living close to the boy she originally wanted, the one I stole from her...

She’d probably be delighted to have him for herself, now... after everything I did, he won’t want me anymore... I got him and his dog turned into bird-men... Kiwi can even talk, and read minds, all thanks to me...

Has William ever forgiven me for not stopping the Schyphozoa from possessing him, and letting XANA exact his will upon my poor _ex novio_? I couldn’t blame him if he didn’t. XANA should have possessed me, instead.

I’d probably be a much bigger help to him, than the others. At least then, I’d know how the others honestly felt about me.

I even know how much of my fault it is, when the whitecoats also resort to picking random people up off the street... _I’m so, so, so sorry, Hunter... you’re into this mess, all because of_ my _stupidity..._

The dread, doubt and terror completely consumed me, until I found myself sobbing into my arms, which were pressed up against the glass wall, as the water continued to fall all around me. Ulrich might have trusted me to not try anything rash, but I was sure they had even better plans for me, at some point.

I assumed that I had to enjoy this trip for as long as it lasted because once we were back in France, I could say goodbye to everything else...

Maybe they should just leave me in North Platte, Nebraska. They didn’t really need me.

All they had to do was drop the façade, and that was it. They could keep it up for as long as they wanted to, but in the end, they were really only hurting themselves.

I knew how they all thought about me. They didn’t have mental shields like I did. None of them were going to come into the bathroom while I was in here, and see me like this. They knew I hated that.

But either way, I knew at some point, I’d have to put on my best “I’m fine” face, turn off the water, and step out of here. Yet, I knew they’d never know the difference. Their gazes couldn’t penetrate me.

However, the longer I stood there, venting my frustrations into the surrounding streams, and the rising steam, I began to feel a slight bit of calmness. It was as if there was a gigantic, octopus-like monster that had given me a very tight hug with its tentacles, and I had finally managed to get the stupid thing off from me…

...or had I?

“Are you feeling better?” Yumi asked as I walked out of the bathroom, fifteen, almost twenty minutes later, almost in the same outfit as before.

“Not all the way, but I’m getting there,” I answered. “A lot is still on my mind.”

Even if that shower had started to make me feel better, it wasn’t like I could just walk up to Yumi, and tell her what was on my mind, could I? I mean, sure, I thought of her as a big sister—and so did the rest of the gang, and maybe Hunter would, at some point—but how would she take something like ‘you all hate me, don’t you?’, especially if it was just out of nowhere?

Part of me still believed something crazy was going on. I wasn’t as depressed as I was before I washed myself, but some of the lingering effects were still there. Not even three showerheads could erase that, as much as part of me wanted them to.

But… if they really were feeling that way toward me… isn’t two or three years a long time to keep up a charade like that? Given everything they’ve done… that was why I was more indecisive than I think I’ve ever been in my life.

While this was going on, I could see Yumi getting slightly worried. She, like most of the others, knew what I was capable of. The attempted Digital Sea jump came way out of left field, but now she and the others were ready for another one. When I had “a lot on my mind,” it could almost be incredibly disastrous, and that’s just the worst-case scenario.

I could tell Odd was glancing over toward me, as well. If anyone was going to prove to me that this was all a game, despite his acting skills, it would have to be _mi novio._ That look of worry on his face had to be a trick. After all we’ve been through, how do I know his well-timed appearances and rescues weren’t “because he just happened to be in the neighborhood?”

And Ulrich… sure, he’s concerned, too… but maybe he’s more concerned for Yumi’s well-being, especially if I decide to lash out at her. I don’t look anything like my geisha friend. My hair’s longer and colored brown with a pink streak, I wear glasses, and I’m definitely not as tall as she is. So it certainly wasn’t a case of mistaken identity, any of those times he came to save me. He keeps his emotions and pain bottled up inside himself, so he’s nearly as much of an enigma as I can be.

Of course, before I could try to think about the girl that could soon become another of my flesh-and-blood sisters, Yumi spoke up once more, possibly noticing I was taking my time coming up with a reply.

“Well, if you want to, you can always tell us about it,” she offered her voice a mixture of concern, fear, and worry.

Well, she _did_ ask for it...

Looking her in the eyes, I finally worked up the courage to ask, “Do you all secretly hate me?”

A series of gasps found their way to my ears, from all over the room. Surprise was a gentle way of putting it; most of them were flabbergasted that I had asked such a question. It was this part that made my nerves flare up. The last thing I wanted, was the angst-fueled tirade I had just spent nearly thirty minutes trying to wash off from my bare skin to actually be _right_.

However, Yumi’s eyes, which had widened from her surprise, soon narrowed once more, with her eyebrows following them down. “I think the steam really got to you. What was in that shower?”

“Nothing, Yumi. My nightmare’s really messing with me so hard, I don’t know what to think,” I confessed.

“Well, then, tell us,” Ulrich inquired, getting slightly curious. “Maybe we can be of some help.”

So that’s exactly what I did. Going through painstaking detail from start to finish, I told them everything that I could recall, right down to each thing that was said, doing my best impression of each voice. Once I had reached the Return to the Past, everyone had found a reason to be dumbfounded.

Odd shook out of his stupefaction first. “Wow, Cat Girl. I knew Reilly drove you bananas, but _this?_ Are you sure he didn’t sting you with anything more when we had our out-of… whatever?”

“Remember? We saw that he wasn’t around! I’m wondering if he somehow did something when I was passed out after the mazes,” I blinked.

“I can’t even remember that,” Ulrich lamented, rubbing the back of his head, sheepishly. “But I’ve told you what I think about you, and your powers, and things like that. I don’t get why you think I’m lying.”

“Me neither. I couldn’t even take back control when the chair released my eyelids. As soon as the nightmare-version of Yumi got done, I was shredded.” I squeezed my eyes shut, scared of what her sweeter version would do.

Initially, she wasn’t pleased, as my continually bringing this subject up made me sound like a broken record, but when she saw my reaction to Ulrich’s reply, her expression softened. So instead, she walked closer to me, and gently placed her hand on my left shoulder.

“Cassidy,” she soothed, a warm, calming smile on her face, “no matter how many times we have to tell you, you should know that we’re your friends, and we’re for you. We don’t say that to get you off our backs; we _mean_ it.”

“That’s right,” _mi novio_ agreed. “And it’s like I said in that bubble after you and Einstein came to the rescue: friendship isn’t approximative. It’s double zero!”

“I think, since you always seem to take the blame for circumstances beyond your control,” Jeremie offered as an explanation, “it, in turn, travels into your subconscious, which causes your nightmares to reflect your self-inflicted, inner turmoil.”

“I guess that makes sense. My last nightmare didn’t even carry the force of a gigantic wrecking Kolossus at my feet,” I said, turning to the genius.

“You never told us about your last nightmare,” Sister replied, getting slightly intrigued, while still remaining worried. “But I’m not playing around, either! Would I call you my sister, if I wanted to shove your head into the nearest trash can? I love you, and I care about you. I could never hate you, especially not _now!_ In the past, a few months before the monster had been unleashed, when you weren’t feeling well, I couldn’t—”

Before she could finish her sentence, I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. “And I love you, too.” I rested my head on her shoulder.

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Would you like to call my father?” Aelita asked. “He might want to hear about this.”

I nodded at her, my shields lowering. “That could work. I’m sure he’s got some words to say.”

Aelita calmly handed me her phone, the phone number already dialed, and ringing through to the other end. Placing it against my ear, I merely had to wait two rings, before her father, Franz Schaeffer, answered. I had explained everything to him, from start to finish, and was soothingly reassured that he would never do such a thing. None of the others held such animosity toward me, and he certainly didn’t, either. It was so refreshing to hear this, as we ended the call not long after, and I returned the pink phone to its owner.

“He’s so soothing, Aelita,” I smiled.

She nodded, one of her usual warm, disarming smiles gracing her face. “Thanks! And I agree; he’s _very_ soothing. I love him a lot.”

“Now we got that out of the way, do you think you would like to sleep, dear sister?” Sister asked.

It was as if her reminder had flipped a switch, as I felt my eyes droop, and a yawn escape my lips before I nodded in reply. I _was_ exhausted, but my terrible mood from earlier had masked this. With it out of the way, I could go back to doing what I had been doing before it so rudely interrupted me.

“Good, _but_! You are _not_ sleeping alone, dear sister! I can’t _believe_ you thought _that_ would be a good idea! You are coming to my bed and sleeping there,” my dear sister replied next, folding her arms as she stared at me.

I was in no state to object, or even refuse that. So I walked with her to her bed.

“And I’ll sleep on your other side,” Aelita added, walking behind the two of us. “With the both of us, it’s bound to cancel out any nightmares you might have.”

I nodded. “Thanks, Aelita.” _Sis…_

“My pleasure,” she smiled, warmly. “And anyway, you know that everything your nightmare version of me told you was a lie. I would never hate you, or feel that way toward you.”

“And do you _really_ think I would tell you _not_ to talk to Aelita anymore?” Jeremie prodded gently. “That’s totally ridiculous.”

Giggling tiredly, I teased, “I guess I would have to say something.”

“Something!” Aelita chimed in, a slight laugh of her own escaping her mouth.

Jeremie rolled his eyes in Aelita’s direction, bemusedly. “ _Really?_ ”

“Come on, Lyoko Warriors. Let’s get us some sleep,” Yumi insisted.

“Yeah, I’ve had enough of nightmares for one night,” Hunter yawned, making his way toward the door. “You remembered the keycard, didn’t you, Ulrich?”

Samurai nodded, flicking it out in his hand, moments before following him.

“We’ve got a big day ahead of us, tomorrow,” Jeremie replied, with a yawn of his own, as he tagged behind the brown-haired boy. “Night, ladies!”

“Good night, Jeremie,” Aelita smiled.

After the three had stepped out and closed the door behind themselves, Max, Jeb, and Ari made their way toward the door, next.

“Looks like everything’s under control here,” Max and Ari’s father commented, as he reached the door, and pulled it open. “Guess we’ll be heading back to our beds, as well. Good night, everyone.”

“Good night, Jeb…” I yawned.

Those three soon left as well, as William walked over to the door, which Max had held open for him.

“Try not to throw any more guitars,” he joked, as he placed his own hand against the door, allowing Max to follow behind Ari and Jeb.

“I’m sure we don’t need a disclaimer about harming them,” Yumi bantered after the rebellious boy.

Once William had left, and the door was closed behind him, Sister turned her attention to me. “Let’s have you lay down, first, dear sister. Then, Aelita and I can get in on both sides of you.”

I flopped into the middle of the bed. “I’m sorry to have scared you guys.”

“Oh, don’t sweat it, Cat Girl,” Odd smiled, as he approached his own bed. “Believe me, I’ve seen worse. How about waking up at 3 in the morning, after a marathon of _Hospital of Horrors,_ to hearing Ulrich snore like a grizzly bear?”

“I have done that before,” I deadpanned. “You let me bunk with you two one time?”

“How could I forget that!” In reality, it only took Odd a few seconds to recall that. “That was after our second Forest Replika mission.”

“Yep,” I yawned. “ _Buenas noches, mi novio.”_

“ _Buenas noches, mi novia,_ ” he repeated back to me, swapping the noun’s gender appropriately, as he climbed into his own bed, while still keeping his eyes on me.

Kiwi hopped onto the bed I resided on, licking my face once, before going to join his owner. “Good night, Cassidy. I hope you have plenty of pleasant dreams this time around.”

“Thanks, Kiwi,” I smiled.

As Odd’s winged diggity-dog laid down next to his owner, Aelita turned her attention to me. “Shall Sissi and I rub your back? It’ll help you fall back to sleep faster.”

“And you need the best sleep you can get, dear sister!” Sister added, smiling warmly at me. “We’ll make sure you can’t help but fall into beautiful, wonderful dreams!”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I can’t believe I had that stupid nightmare.”

“You really need to stop blaming yourself for things that are out of your control,” Yumi commented, sitting on her bed in her night clothes, facing me. “Besides, it’s over with. It’s not like you’re going to have it twice in the same night, or even the same week.”

“I’ve had a period of recurring nightmares before, but I’m sure it’s nothing like that,” I agreed.

Once I had slid under the covers, between Sister and Aelita, I felt the two girls start softly and slowly rubbing my back in circles of varying sizes, almost immediately.

“And Cassidy,” Aelita soothingly cooed into my ear, “we stayed with you in the hospital during your coma. If we ever thought about leaving you behind, we certainly wouldn’t have been able to fight hospital security to keep the doctors from cutting off your life support.”

“That’s true, Aelita, darling,” Sister agreed before turning to address me. “Do you really think we’d be your closest, truest friends if we let you die?”

I sighed in relaxation, greatly enjoying the tender touches from my “sisters,” as they administered one of the most relaxing back rubs I had ever felt. “No. You were right. I still remember the medical bracelets you all wore.”

“It wouldn’t have been right,” Aelita explained, “if we had let you suffer alone.”

“Weren’t you _all_...” a yawn interrupted my thought in mid-sentence, “...in shock at first…?”

“Well, of course, we were,” Sister replied, starting to look a bit solemn, “which made it a lot easier for the paramedics to bring us along with you. But after a few weeks to a month, we were good as new.”

“At least you all helped. How _did_ you d-draw up the plans…?”

“It was all Patrick’s idea,” Aelita replied, starting to smile. “Everyone else offered him a few ideas, but he was the one who put the final plans together.”

“I heard Odd over there tried to make an alicorn barricade?” I rested against the pillows.

“He wanted to,” Sister replied, nearly giggling as she thought about it, “but it would’ve looked stupid. Not to mention it wouldn’t have done a thing against the hospital’s security guards. They certainly weren’t alicorns.”

“Well, Ulrich said they didn’t have enough beds.” Another yawn came out of my mouth.

“He’s right; that was one of the reasons why we didn’t arrange the beds that way,” Aelita recalled.

“Ah, well, you all did a wonderful job, despite...the darkest moment in your history,” I tried to remain tactful, feeling fingers rub my wings through my nightshirt.

Sister nodded, having gently flipped herself onto her back to reach my wings, while Aelita continued her soothing, gentle strokes of my back. “Thank you… but maybe that’s enough thinking about our hospital stay for one night? You should be thinking happy thoughts, dear sister. I think you’ve already had enough trauma for one night.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Sister. I know it was a massive shock at first, but seeing F-Franz and Anthea in our hospital room was a deep relief for me,” I sighed happily, a wave of relaxation rising to wash over me.

Even Aelita found my happiness contagious, while still managing to keep her words tactful. “It was a wonderful feeling for me, as well.”

“After a week, I started getting used to the fact that your father and mother were back in your life again. I felt a bit…what would be the most appropriate word here…?”

“Overjoyed?” Aelita began to throw words out, almost like a human thesaurus. “Enthused? Enthralled? Phantasmagoric? Fantastic?”

“Phantasmagoric—like seeing ghosts, almost, but I knew that they were real.” The wave washed over me, almost making me shut my eyes.

“My father told me that Franz was once the science teacher,” Sister recalled, something having reminded her of the conversation, “before Mrs. Hertz took over. I almost didn’t believe it at first, until I saw him myself.”

“Yeah… I—” I felt my consciousness slip away, the conversation lulling me into a sweet, soothing slumber.

After that, I had a wonderful dream. My wings had fully grown, and I was able to take to the skies, with all the grace of a beautiful bird, just like Max and her flock. As I zoomed through the air, I felt not one shred of fear, or worry. I was seeing the world from a bird’s eye view and had nothing but excitement for it. I felt my wings carry me all over, to places I had only read about in books, with my friends, as well as Max and her flock, following right behind me. It was indeed a wonderful feeling.

However, it wasn’t long before someone was shaking my shoulders. “Wake up, Cassidy. Otherwise, Jeremie might ask Aelita dating advice for a computer chip…”

I shot up. “ARE YOU _NUTS?!_ Jeremie’s in love with Aelita.”

This was soon greeted with laughter, from none other than Ulrich. I should have seen it coming, as him and I had pulled similar tricks to wake Einstein before. But I never expected him to pull such a stupid stunt to wake _me_ up!

“Ulrich… you know we should only do those to a deeply sleeping, or a catatonic, Jeremie…” I whined playfully.

“Who said _he_ gets to have all the fun?” Ulrich retorted, slowly calming down. “I knew you wouldn’t be expecting that, so it was perfect.”

“Ugh, I forget that my mind-reading powers shut off as soon as I fall asleep,” I giggled. “And Nickelback might make an addicting song called ‘For the River’ one day.”

“You’d have to wait until ‘How You Remind Me’ falls off the charts,” he quipped, his face still bearing a mischievous grin. “Anyway, did you sleep well?”

“As a matter of fact, my dream was lovely after that disaster. It was very ‘sky high,’ if you ask me,” I smiled.

About a moment later, the door to the suite opened, revealing Odd and Kiwi, who were returning from a walk. My wildcard adopted a wide grin when he saw me. “Ah! _¡Buenos días, novia!”_

“ _Buenos días, Novio,”_ I beamed. “ _¡Buenos días, Kiwi!_ ”

“Morning, Cassidy,” Kiwi woofed.

“You _must_ have slept better than last night,” he continued, walking over to my bed. “I saw how Sissi and Aelita were rubbing your back. I hope the spa massages look that good!”

“Maybe. I guess I shouldn’t be sleeping alone from now on,” I blinked.

“Oh, c’mon, Cat Girl!” _mi novio_ interjected. “That was just _one_ nightmare. It’s not like you’re gonna have dreams that bad _all_ the time!”

“He’s right,” Ulrich agreed, walking over by his original roommate. “I’m sure they won’t mind sleeping with you more often, but I bet you’ll dream just fine, even without them, if need be.”

“I guess you have a point, Ulrich, but I think I might get these the more I sleep alone or without stuffed animals,” I hugged my knees to my chest.

“Then just bring Hippity with you,” Ulrich suggested, drawing a parallel between myself and my former first roommate. “Aelita always keeps Mister Pück with her, so you can always hang onto Hippity.”

“And my ponies, too?”

“Well, sure!” Odd replied, blinking out of slight surprise when he remembered where they were. “You might wanna bring them in, though. They’re still out in Dr. Martinez’s van.”

“Yeah, and I’m sure Sister wants me to sleep beside her again. She seemed adamant last night,” I nodded.

Before either boy could reply, the door opened once more. In walked Yumi, carrying a styrofoam cup of hot chocolate in each hand. “ _Ohayou,_ Cassidy, Ulrich, Odd and Kiwi. I was just at the vending machine. They’ve got hot chocolate.”

She then offered the second cup she was holding to me. “Here, Cassidy, I got this for you.”

“ _Domo arigatou,_ Yumi,” I did my best, but I didn’t know if I even did that right, taking the cup in my hand and drinking it gratefully.

“ _Dou itashimashite,_ ” she replied with a smile before I heard an extra tidbit in my mind. She must have seen it on my face. _You were right. You could also say ‘_ arigatou gozaimashita,’ _which means ‘thank you for doing that.’_

A blush heated my cheeks up. “I always forget that one…”

Yumi’s smile faded, slightly, as she noticed my blush. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. You did fine. You’ll learn Japanese in no time.”

“True. I guess I went with what Styx taught me,” I shrugged, a smile still gracing my features.

A giggle escaped the geisha’s lips, knowing all too well I meant Mr. Roboto. She knew there was a tiny bit of Japanese in it, besides thanking the _Roboto_ , such as at the beginning of the song, but still giggled at the reference anyway.

“At least I know that _domo_ is ‘very much,’ now.”

Yumi nodded, before changing the subject. “You’re right. And did you sleep better after what happened?”

“Oh, most definitely! My dreams ‘soared to new heights,’ if you get my point,” I winked.

A smile graced my geisha friend’s features, before her eyes darted toward my wings, still contained in my nightshirt as if she was trying to pick up some sort of clue. “Something about flying?”

“Yep. It was so nice. We met up with Max and her flock, and we all flew, Yumi.” A giggle escaped my throat. “No one was scared.”

“No one should be, anyway,” Ulrich concurred, even though most of us could tell why he had said that. “And once our wings grow out for real, we can all give it a try.”

“Yep. It felt so real. No Rei—” I caught Odd’s eye and backtracked. “I mean, no bad guys trying to break me or anyone I love, no hurtful words to send me into a crisis, no scary events, just real air.”

Ulrich noticed my sudden change in tact, and glanced over at Yumi, before his eyes befell Odd, taking a wild guess as to why it happened. “Why did you do that?”

“You know what talking about that _one whitecoat_ does to her, good buddy,” Odd retorted, folding his arms. “And I don’t even want to talk about _the other one_.”

“What other—” It only took my geisha friend a few seconds to realize _who_ exactly _mi novio_ meant, causing her eyes to widen as she stopped. “Ohhh… right.”

“Her,” I nodded. “She’s baited the hook, and I’m not sure if the bait is a filthy lie or not.”

“Don’t worry about that, Cassidy,” Ulrich reassured me, adding a calm grin. “This month is gonna go by like _that_ , and we’ll be back in France, and at the factory, before Kiwi learns a new trick.”

The next person to step through the door into our suite was Jeremie. His “temporary” laptop was perched underneath his right arm as he walked in, and he soon approached us, bearing one of his usual neutral smiles.

“Good morning,” he began. “You sound better this morning, Cassidy.”

“Yep. A better dream hit me after Aelita and Sister gave me a nice massage,” I smiled. “Speaking of, where are they?”

“Last I heard,” Einstein answered, “they were walking around the lobby, localizing the place. But they’ll probably return in about—”

Well, speak of the angels; it just so happened that both Sister and Aelita came walking through the door, almost the moment Jeremie mentioned that.

“Speak of all things good,” Einstein quipped, as if his words were a prayer cue, turning his head to smile warmly at his pink-haired princess. “Good morning, Aelita! Sissi!”

“Morning, Jeremie,” Aelita beamed, before turning her attention toward me. “Morning, Cassidy.”

“ _Buenos días, Aelita,_ ” I nodded. “Good morning, Sister!”

“Good morning, dear sister!” Sister chimed in, sounding as though she was walking on air. “And good morning to you, Ulrich dear, Odd sweetheart, Aelita darling, Yumi dear, and Jeremie honey! Oh, it’s such a wonderful day, and our hotel is so big and perfect! After we visit the spa, we’ve got to have a look around, and see all the things we can do here, before we leave tomorrow!”

“That’s good, Sister; I’m glad we can go in today,” I giggled.

“I guess it’ll be nice to relax, after everything we’ve been through,” Ulrich commented, still keeping a bit of a grin on his face.

“That’s great because I could really go for a full-body massage.”

We all glanced over at the door, the direction of the voice, to find that Patrick was the next to walk in, Kaitlyn in tow. “Good morning, everyone.”

“Morning, you two,” I grinned. “The Belpois Clan is complete.”

“You’re right,” Jeremie agreed, smiling at his two cousins. “Good morning, Patrick and Kaitlyn. Did both of you sleep well?”

“Oh, we slept fine, Jeremie,” Kaitlyn answered. “My dreams were sweet.”

“Mine, too,” Patrick agreed. “I dreamed of fighting on Lyoko in a more _appropriate_ outfit.”

“I’m telling ya, Patrick, I’m working on it,” Einstein smirked.

I raised a finger. “And I dreamt I was flying.”

“Oh, that must’ve been great, Cassidy,” Kaitlyn grinned.

“By the way, where’s Hunter?” I asked.

“He’s still sleeping,” Einstein lamented. “Apparently he woke up a few hours earlier, after having a nightmare of his own, so he’s really tired.”

“It’s better than having him being cranky,” the female cousin of Jeremie shrugged. “I don’t think I want to hear him on a bad day.”

“Yeah,” I agreed but felt there was a lie in the blond genius’s words. Hunter didn’t have a bad dream. Wasn’t that _me_?

“Well, he’d better wake up, soon!” Sister commented, still looking mostly happy. “He’s gonna miss out on the spa if he stays in bed for too long!”

“You see, Sissi, he’s a heavy sleeper. It would take the threat of an activated tower to get him awake,” Jeremie shrugged, taking care to not break his computer. “And I don’t have that sound byte recorded on my new laptop yet.”

“He’s worse than _you_ , good buddy!” Odd quipped, sending a mischievous grin toward his original roommate. “But in any event,  let’s not wait any longer.” He then walked over toward one of the dressers, upon which a phone sat. “Let’s order room service now, that way the food will be here, by the time everyone else wakes up. And if Hunter’s still asleep by then, we’ll just have to save some for him!”

My stomach growled in response. _Thanks for reminding_ mi estómago _, Odd._

He merely gave me one of his Cheshire Cat-style grins, as he closed his eyes, before reaching for the phone. _De nada, mi novia._

I giggled. _He’s still got it._

Ulrich folded his arms, adding his own grin into the mix. “You act as though he lost it.”

That sent me over the edge of laughter, as I doubled up, clutching my stomach with both arms as I cackled my head off. Ulrich didn’t always send me into fits of laughter, but when he did, they often rivaled what Odd was capable of.

“And a wonderful laughing fit to start the day!” Sister added with a giggle, watching me rock back and forth. “They say laughter is the best medicine, after all!”

“It sure is,” Yumi agreed.

As I continued, the others almost finding my laughter contagious, _mi ex novio_ entered the suite, with a smile on his face. “Hey, anybody seen that guitar from last night? I wanted to jam out a bit, this morning.”

That sent me laughing harder, to the point where I was trying to catch my breath.

Seeing my laughing fit nearly turning into a choking fit, Yumi quickly walked over behind me and started to softly and slowly rub my back, with both hands.

“There, Cassidy… just take a deep breath,” she commented in a somewhat calm voice. “There you go…”

I took in a deep breath, slowly finding my bearings. “H-holy cow…”

“Don’t worry…” my geisha friend’s voice dropped to a soothing coo. “You’ve had a good laugh, and now it’s time to relax.”

“What do you mean, William, a guitar?” Kaitlyn asked, as I finally calmed down.

Turning his head to face William, thereby hiding it from my view, Jeremie’s features bore a grimace, worried that the rebellious black-haired boy might blow their entire setup.

“Uh… I deliriously walked over here thinking someone threw a guitar… and I found I was wrong. I was just acting silly,” William lied.

That calmed Einstein down. Without thinking anything, his face morphed into the look he would make if he were to breathe a sigh of relief. He undoubtedly saved the parties involved from that jam. No point in making me feel even worse, again, especially not after we spent a good few minutes reassuring me that my bad dream was a lie.

“Okay, William… That was a weird thing you thought,” Patrick grinned.

“I know? It was so killer…” William tried to put on the best grin he could muster. “I was dreaming that I had a front-row seat to a Subdigitals concert, and I thought Benoit’s guitar flew out of his hand, in-between songs.”

“Ben’s got a more controlled grip than that,” I noted. “He wouldn’t give up one of his guitars for the world.”

Nearby, Odd was speaking on the phone, holding a piece of paper in his opposite hand as he glanced at it. He turned to look over at Jeremie, Ulrich, Aelita, Sister, Yumi, and I, just as Sam entered the suite.

“What does everyone want for breakfast?” he called out, holding up the piece of paper, which turned out to be a room service menu.

“Ooh, a ham and cheese omelet,” I chimed in, “and bacon on the side, please.”

He repeated the order into the phone, before turning his gaze, and the menu, on Ulrich. “What about you, good buddy?”

Ulrich decided what he wanted to eat, and not long afterward, everyone who was in the room had given Odd their orders, which he relayed to the person at the front desk. In a few moments, he had hung up the phone, and placed the menu down next to it, on the dresser.

“They’ll have it all up to this room in about 15 minutes,” he announced to our group.

“Awesome,” Ulrich exclaimed.

Feeling Samurai had answered for himself as well, Jeremie turned his attention to Sister. “Sissi, when you and Aelita were walking around the hotel, earlier… how many places did you see?”

“Oh, lots of beautiful, wonderful places, Jeremie dear,” Sister smiled. “Besides the spa, they’ve also got a swimming pool, a hot tub, a tennis court, and a restaurant, too!”

“That is wonderful. Maybe after my treatments, I could go for a hot tub soak,” I grinned. “Been quite a while. And Jim doesn’t allow anyone near the hot tub next to the pool.”

“Oh, no hot tub for me,” Jeremie commented, his face unchanging. “I’d rather go back up to my suite, and keep an eye out for XANA.”

“That’s okay, Jeremie dear. No one is forcing you. My dear sister just wants to soak. It’s not like she’s inviting anyone else to join her,” Sister nodded, bearing a warm smile, almost like mine.

“I might join you, Cassidy,” Aelita offered, finding my grin contagious.

“That would be great, Sis,” I found myself saying before I could stop.

Nearby, Odd raised an eyebrow, looking a bit surprised. “Uhhh… isn’t it kinda early for that? We don’t even know if Aelita’s DNA actually _did_ anything, besides the streak of hair.”

My cheeks heated up. “Did I—uh—gah—duh?”

“Uh-oh…” Ulrich started to tense up, fearing what I might do in reply to Odd’s comment.

“I—” I tried to force the knot out of my vocal chords, to stop myself from falling into “Vowel Rehearsal Syndrome,” but found little success.

“Cassidy?” Aelita chirped, getting a little bit concerned.

I stopped talking but turned my head in her direction, my gaze regarding her.

She gently placed her hands upon my shoulders, showing me a half-worried smile. “It’s okay… we could always pretend to be sisters, too… just like you and Sissi?”

I tried to smile, still reminded of Mandy’s words.

Her hands then snaked down my back, before pulling me into her warm embrace. “Just relax… calm down… it was an accident, that’s all…”

“Please, dear sister,” Sister chimed in, walking closer to me. “It might help not to think about it.”

“R-r-r-right…” I squeaked, managing to rake the knot out of my tongue and vocal chords. “I guess I overshot it and spoke without thinking.”

“You had a lot of things on your mind,” Aelita soothed, giving my back a few gentle rubs with her hands. “It’s nothing serious.”

“Yeah,” Odd agreed, approaching the three of us. “Maybe you were thinking about Sissi, while you were looking at Aelita!”

“True,” I smiled.

“And it’s too bad Jim won’t let us step into the hot tub at the pool,” Yumi jumped in, trying to change the subject. “You don’t ever see _him_ in it.”

“That is _such_ a shame, Yumi, dear. I never brought it up with my father at all because I never think about it,” Sister added.

“Well, I’m gonna hit the restaurant, after my spa!” Odd announced, grinning. “After all those massages, Vichy showers, steam rooms, and body scrubs, I’m bound to work up an appetite!”

“I’m going to avoid the saunas or steam rooms, and anything involving wraps,” I blinked.

“Don’t worry, dear sister,” Sister commented with a proud grin on her face. “I made sure you wouldn’t have to go through _anything_ that reminded you of a XANA attack you lived through. But I am _very_ proud of you for speaking up! You need to do that a _lot_ more often!”

“I guess I’m still a bit silent when I should shout it out a little,” I said, my cheeks heating in modesty.

Ulrich placed his hand upon my right shoulder. “It’s okay. Just remember that there’s a wide line between modesty… and Odd.”

Odd nodded before his eyes widened and he turned to his original roommate. “HEY! Ulrich, you should be glad we’re not on Lyoko right now, or I would let you have it! LASER—”

“Not so loud…” I interrupted. “Hunter’s still asleep.”

“Right,” _mi novio_ replied, quickly realizing he had forgotten about him. “Laser arrow…”

“But maybe I’ll spend some time in the hot tub, after my massage and steam bath,” Ulrich commented, not really talking to anyone in particular. “I wonder if I should go for a body shampoo, before that?”

“It’s up to you, Ulrich,” Yumi smiled at her _novio_. “I might do that before I step into the hot tub. That way, it’ll be more like an onsen bath. Only, I’ll probably have to wear a swimsuit into the hot tub.”

“Good thing we went to Walmart, huh, Ulrich?” Odd quipped.

Samurai gained a bit of a smirk. “Yeah. Guess that came in handy, after all.”

I nodded before my mind switched to a topic. “I hope that the hotel guests don’t see us as um…” Gritting my teeth, I didn’t want to end up ruining the mood.

“You’re right…” Jeremie’s voice dropped in pitch, slightly. “And since most of our spa treatments will require us to be naked… that might become a bit of a challenge.”

Then he looked up, almost as if he found what he thought was a silver lining. “But maybe the spa staff has seen more interesting creatures show up for a Vichy shower?”

That was before a new voice came into the din. “ _Or_ Jeb already ran ahead and helped them understand your situation.”

I looked over and saw a black-clad figure, taller than William, standing in the doorway. “Oh, hi, Fang. And that’s a relief.”

“Hi, everyone,” he nodded nonchalantly before setting his dark eyes upon me. “You alright?”

“Better than ever,” I copied the motion, a smile gracing my features.

“That’s good. Max and the others are doing some reconnaissance, making sure no Erasers or whitecoats want to bring anyone back to The School,” Max’s lover said, returning his gaze on the rest of us. “No one wants to go back there. And from your reactions, you guys don’t, either.”

“You’re right, Fang,” Aelita agreed, a solemn look crossing her face.

“We don’t,” Yumi added.

Kaitlyn crossed her arms over her chest. “If I get dragged back there, I’m not going to go quietly; I’m going to be kicking ass and not taking any survivors!”

“None of us will have to go back,” Jeremie interjected, with an air of authority, as if he was absolutely sure of himself. “With protectors such as Max, Fang, and the others, how could they possibly drag us back?”

“You’re right, Jeremie,” I agreed, my heart giving a skip when he spoke that way.

“They’ve kept us safe for this long,” Ulrich chimed in, folding his arms. “I bet we can make it all the way to Baltimore, without seeing a single Eraser or whitecoat.”

“Let’s hope we don’t mess this up,” Odd lamented, feeling a bit unsure.

“I would hate to be captured again,” I shivered.

“We’re _not_ going to be captured again, sister dear,” Sister stepped in, with the same amount of authority Jeremie gave his words, as she placed her hand upon my shoulder. “You’ve got nothing to worry about, except which spa treatment to go for, first!”

“Yeah, you’re right, Sister.” I took in a deep breath, wrapping my arms around her.

She returned the warm embrace, snuggling me warmly. “And since you like Georgina’s wipes and washes so much, I thought you might like a body shampoo, too!”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

“I might just go for an extra-long massage,” Jeremie noted since we had returned to that subject. “I don’t really like the idea of sweating like crazy, and I’m not sure what a body scrub would feel like.”

“I’m sure you’d laugh once the scrub hits your ticklish areas. Once it hit mine back in France, I started laughing,” I giggled, finding the popped-up memories of him getting tickled, whether on purpose by his beloved or on accident by Yumi, hilarious.

“I don’t think I _have_ any ticklish areas,” he interjected, rubbing the back of his head.

“Oh… Einstein…” I sang, getting very conspiring, as I kicked off the bedsheets, tackled him, slipping off his converse sneakers and tickling the bottoms of his feet.

Once my fingers wiggled against his soles, the blond genius felt an uncontrollable urge to burst out laughing, completely erasing the surprise of getting knocked onto the bed. “Okay! Okay! I give up!”

I smiled, letting up. “See?”

Einstein gave me a playful glare. “I’ll just make sure they _don’t_ scrub the bottoms of my feet.”

Kaitlyn smirked. “Three out of six girls tickling you, cuz? You _must_ have great friends.”

He slowly slipped his feet back into his shoes, tying their laces, before sliding back off the bed. “I’m just trying to make sure the _other_ three don’t get that idea.”

“I’m sure that Sam’s got more tact than that,” I smiled.

“Nah, I’m sure I’ll get my turn, someday,” Sam commented with a sly grin, as she approached the others with her arms folded.

Odd giggled a bit. “Sure, if Kaitlyn and Sissi don’t do it first!”

“Oh, I won’t do _that_ , Odd, dear,” Sister smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of tickling poor Jeremie against his will!”

“So out of the three, Sister won’t do that to you, Einstein,” I smirked.

His half-serious, half-playful glare didn’t change. “That’s a relief, I guess… but how do I know you’re not just going to give me an extra tickle, to compensate?”

“I don’t think I’d do it twice in one day, Jeremie,” I giggled. “I rarely give repeat performances.”

And with that brief sentence, a slight tinge of worry wiggled into my heart. Even though it was random, and I struggled to discover how it had anything to do with tickling Jeremie… part of me worried if the monster was going to come back. After all, I couldn’t precisely remember what caused it to come on in the first place, aside from the loss of my voice… but what if there was more to it than that? I know I was one to worry a lot, and sometimes worry about anything and everything… but this felt almost as if it had some merit to it. If we could figure out what caused it to come on, the first time… could we stop it from happening again? Or, what if we can’t? I didn’t want to slip into another coma and then get slated for death once more.

There was a slight change in my facial expression, but it was enough to tip Yumi off, as she walked closer to me, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You’re not worried about the spa, or anyone from the School showing up, are you?”

“Uh… Yeah. Mainly the whitecoats and Erasers invading and taking us back to that place,” I lied, raising my mental shields quickly and showing a smile. “I really don’t want my neck stung again.”

Even if I tried to hide it, Yumi wasn’t stupid. I don’t know if it was the momentary switch in tactic, that smile I tried to give her, or me not raising my mental shields fast enough, but from the unamused look her face assumed, I could tell she didn’t fall for it.

“There’s something else, isn’t there?” she pressed, still keeping her voice low.

“Can we talk in private?” I asked, trying to keep Kaitlyn from figuring out the pieces of the puzzle.

“Sure,” she replied, the look on her face turning calm. “Out in the hallway?”

I nodded. “Sounds good.”


	19. Of Nightmares and Spa Treatments, Part 2

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s and the plot.**

Once out into the hallway, I lowered my mental shields, letting my facial expression go into full-on worry. “Remember when I had that nightmare last night?”

Yumi raised an eyebrow and her voice back to normal volume. “You’re still thinking about that?”

“In a more different way, Yumi. I saw the m—the v-v-v—the monster that scared you all…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. The word still carried an extreme amount of malice and fear, and I’d probably be lying in the fetal position, with my eyes watering like crazy before the word would even come close to leaving my lips.

Now her other eyebrow inched toward her forehead. “But Cassidy, that only happened once. This time, you really _are_ worrying over nothing.”

“Yumi, you all told me to be more upfront, to be more open about everything! What if it happens again? I don’t want to scare everyone and rip the very fabric of time and space again. I would cause more panic, and possibly send Hunter into another catatonic state!” My feet started pacing back and forth, out of habit.

My geisha friend’s expression turned slightly curious, as she watched me walk in circles. “We’re pretty sure we know how it happened the first time, so all we have to do is keep an eye open, and if we see those same signs, we’ll just try doing something different. But you shouldn’t worry about that. You’ve been worrying ever since you got up this morning. Maybe we should just skip breakfast, and take you right to the spa?”

I stopped in my tracks. “The spa doesn’t open until noon, Yumi, remember?”

She scrambled to change tactics. “Then… take Georgina into the bathroom with you, that way you can take your clothes off, and she can give you a nice, long, slow full-body rub, and massage? Maybe even a body wipe, too?”

“Maybe. We’ll just have to see if she’s up at this point. But, Yumi, you told me that we all need to both express ourselves and listen to each other more. Y’all promised,” I pressed. “Remember what happened?”

Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath. “You’re right… okay.”

Reopening her eyes, she adopted a calm expression. “What made you worry that the monster might come back?”

“When I said I ‘don’t do repeat performances,’ to Jeremie” I blinked, taking a deep breath.

“And I know you still feel bad about that, but we’ve already forgiven you dozens of times for it. ‘Repeat performances’ could mean anything, as well.”

“Right…” I nodded, tears springing to my eyes. “I wish I wouldn’t worry so much. It’s making me a wreck.”

“Cassidy…” Her voice became soothing, as she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm snuggle. “I know it’s a bad habit. But you can do it if you try hard enough. Your nightmare has you all wound up, that’s all. Nothing crazy is going to happen. We’ve got Max and her flock keeping an eye out, and we’re all going to have a great time at the spa, later, and the hot tub, too.”

“Yeah. I guess I’m worried that I’ll have the same recurring nightmares again. Those really—” I took another deep breath, tears about to spill over my eyelids. “—I don’t want to have them again…”

Her hands began to softly and soothingly caress my back, in circles. “And you won’t… You’ll see. After a while, you’ll feel better.”

 “I wanna feel better…” I whimpered.

“Then, why don’t we start with some breakfast?” she soothed, noticing the room service cart approaching our suite, out of the corner of her eye. “It looks like it’s here.”

I nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.”

Yumi and I then followed the bellhop back into our suite, as he passed out each food item that we had ordered, and after a few moments, we dug in. The cuisine truly was terrific; we indeed got what Jeb paid for. The eggs and bacon, the pancakes, the bagels… if the food tasted this good, we could only imagine what the restaurant’s food tasted like, or if this breakfast even came from there.

A warm meal felt really good in my belly, which, in turn, helped me feel better. “That really hit the spot.”

“You can say that again,” Ulrich agreed, before pointing at Odd, with his thumb. “And Odd’s only on his third helping!”

Both Aelita and I burst out laughing at that. It hit us both all at once, just imagining the looks on the chefs’ faces, when they heard the gargantuan order Odd put in, along with the bellhop having to bring in five carts, just to carry it all.

Yumi grinned warmly, as she noticed my complete change in behavior. “Much better now, right?”

“Yeah…” I giggled more, wiping a tear of laughter from my eye.

Sister soon walked over with a big grin on her own face. “I love it when my sister is happy! All you needed was a big breakfast! It does wonders for Odd, so of course, it would work for you, too!”

“Yeah, I guess an empty stomach does more than inducing chills,” I smiled.

“Y’see? Now what did I tell ya?” _mi novio_ jumped in. “And you guys don’t think I know what I’m talking about! It’s the most important meal of the day, after all!”

“I get your point, Odd,” I giggled.

“And don’t worry, Odd,” Jeremie jumped in, his face bearing a grin that made him look like he could start laughing at any moment, “I wasn’t going to skip breakfast _this_ time.”

A gasp escaped Kaitlyn’s and Patrick’s mouths, making me stiffen. Raising my mental shields, except for Jeremie, I thought, _They didn’t KNOW?!_

He turned a wide-eyed look of surprise toward me. _I, uh… kinda forgot to mention it… and I really wasn’t thinking clearly enough, just now… me and my big mouth..._

 _Well, the octopus is out of the bag now, Einstein. You have to tell them the truth,_ I argued gently.

He lowered his gaze to the ground, closing his eyes as he let out a quiet sigh. _You’re right… what a mess…_

Turning to face his two cousins, he put on his best sheepish grin and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, you see, Kaitlyn, Patrick… back before we materialized Aelita… and even on the search for her breaker/antivirus… I would occasionally… decide to skip breakfast. It wasn’t until she got her memories back when I started eating breakfast again… I realize that it wasn’t the best decision I could make… but at the time, I tended to hyper-focus on certain aspects of our fight against XANA… and those took a higher priority. I’m sorry.”

“No wonder you looked a little lighter when I first saw you!” Kaitlyn exclaimed, shaking her head. “I knew I should have sent you a couple pamphlets of eating disorders in a care package! But my mother _of all people_ told me, ‘He’s a smart kid. I’m sure he’s doing fine, Kaitlyn.’ I shouldn’t have listened to her…”

Jeremie quickly waved his hands in front of his chest, starting to look a bit more worried than he had been. “I-i-i-i-it’s okay, Kaitlyn. If anything, all that would have done, was give Odd more of a reason to pester me with food, whenever I didn’t eat, but I don’t know how well that would’ve worked out.”

“And he did eat lunch and dinner as much as he could,” I pointed out, coming to Einstein’s defense. “That kept him from passing out from a nonstop programming binge.”

That knocked the wind out of Kaitlyn’s sails. “That’s…kinda better, but you shouldn’t have ignored breakfast.”

“You’re right,” Aelita entered the conversation with a warm opening statement, “and we’re all going to make sure he doesn’t try it again. Or any of us, for that matter.”

“He’s had about five months, and he ate three square meals so far without even passing up one,” Ulrich smiled. “I think he’s taking a step in the right direction.”

“And it also helps that Mrs. Schaeffer coaxed him into eating,” I giggled.

“I saw Jeremie,” Aelita added, with a giggle of her own, just from the memory. “He couldn’t say no to my mother.”

“I saw how red his face became,” I smiled. “It was so cute.”

“You’re right, Cassidy. It really was cute.” Aelita giggled, gaining a slight blush in her cheeks as she continued.

Jeremie started to blush, too, but his reason was different; while Aelita thought favorably, Einstein felt almost like his cheeks would heat up, at the mere mention of what he and his darling pink-haired girlfriend were, no matter how right it was.

“Jeremie…” I started laughing, only thinking it was adorable.

And that only made his blush worse, as he sent a half-sheepish, half-embarrassed expression my way. “W-w-what’s so funny?”

“N-not funny… Cute…” I cackled. “Aelita doesn’t call you ‘the wind beneath her wings’ for nothing.”

His face getting redder, he gently pulled the collar of his brown turtleneck forward, as he let out a small, sheepish chuckle. “Y-yeah… right.”

“You’d better be careful, Cassidy,” Ulrich cracked, noticing the change in the color of Jeremie’s face, “any more, and we’ll have ‘Einstein the thermometer!’”

“Oops…” I giggled, pulling back on the proverbial “reins.” “Sorry, dude.”

The blond genius seemed almost stuck in his choice of vocabulary, his fingers exploring the back of his head. “Well, uh… it’s, uh… okay…”

“Besides, maybe XANA’s behind on his phone bill,” Kiwi yipped, hoping to switch the subject.

The blush began to slowly fade from Jeremie’s cheeks. “Maybe you’re right… he’s been really quiet, ever since we weakened him… I know he’s probably going to come back… but all this silence is worrying me.”

“It is a bit disconcerting to me, too,” I blinked, trying to keep an upbeat tone. “Even with that weird t-tower… Ugh…!”

At that moment, Odd put his arm around me. “But let’s not think of that, okay? We’re all going to get rubbed all over, and anything else we can think of! XANA can wait until we get back to France! He’s probably on vacation, just like us!”

Then a soft hand began to softly caress my back, this time from Sister. “And besides, how are any of us supposed to relax, if all we can think about are crazy stuff, like XANA, and everything else we’ve been through! I say we march down to that spa and demand they open right _now_ , just for us!”

“Not sure if the officials are there right now,” Fang pointed out. “They take from eleven to noon to get ready. And it’s already ten-thirty.”

“Plus, we could wait until then, right, Sister?” I asked, slowly finding my way to Earth, so to speak.

“I suppose we could,” Sister replied, calming down a bit. “Besides, if we really want a good, soft massage, we could always ask Georgina.”

“Thanks, Sissi,” Jeremie smiled. “And that is true.”

“Georgina’s having some tea right now,” Fang came in. “She had driven through two states and one time zone.”

“I guess that also wrought havoc on me, too,” I theorized, giggling a bit. “I’m sure when we do get back to France—and Franz—we’ll have to adjust from ending up going through this.”

“Maybe it’s something that only a few of us are used to,” came Jeremie’s theory. “It might also explain why Hunter’s still asleep.”

Then he smirked, looking over at me. “And I’m sure a good massage, steam bath, or even a coconut milk bath will help all of us modify our normal out-of-range behavior in some minuscule, yet gargantuan manner. And I’m sure both Franz _and_ Anthea will be waiting for us in France… I think.”

“And I’m sure they will, Jeremie,” Aelita soothed. “But I’m not sure any of us understood what either of you meant.”

“Same here, Aelita,” I agreed, then giggled. “I can’t wait to see them. And, well, um… basically, France and _Franz_ are almost spelled the same, just that France ends in C-E, and Franz ends with just a Z.” 

My former first roommate giggled a bit. “And I think Jeremie was making fun of your entire sentence.”

“Hey, your Einstein over there, he’s practically becoming part-comedian,” I scoffed, about to cackle. “I feel no offense.”

At this, both Jeremie and his pink-haired girlfriend felt their cheeks heat up. The two shared a glance, as Einstein found himself rehearsing his vowels, slightly, with a few nervous giggles thrown in. Aelita soon found the best way to fix this was to snuggle him, even if it made his blush worsen.

My heart sang in happiness, seeing how cute the scene played out. I let out a contented sigh as I shored up my mental shields, thinking, _Aw… That is so adorable…_

While I was lost in my thoughts, I didn’t notice Yumi getting a bit of a mischievous smile on her face, just from looking at mine. _They’re adorable, aren’t they?_

Before I could even respond to Yumi’s inner statement, verbally or otherwise, I felt my body shiver involuntarily as my eyes snapped shut and my mental shields dropped. “Ooh… Get ready t-to st-strike if t-the vision’s b-bad… o-or a-a-a m-m-monster h-hits…”

Just as quickly as they closed, they opened again, clouding my sight. Right away, a battle had started to ensue. An Eraser had gotten a hold of me, but my geisha friend managed to come in just in time, sending a gnarly kick to… Never mind, but that one was singing gritty soprano afterward. _Okay… this is fine… No need for a smack to reality, yet… YOU GO, YUMI!!!_

Suddenly, another snared Ulrich in a fierce chest hold. As he struggled to get free, and as Yumi rushed to him, a flying kick directly from the leader of the Flock saved him. Once he was free, Samurai smiled at her gratefully. “Thanks, Max and Yumi.”

_Good… Thank God for Max… Good… this is progress… Seems things aren’t too bad yet…_

No sooner had it appeared the battle was heading our way, then arms started going across my chest. “Damsel in distress, aren’t we, Cassidy René McGuire?!”

 _DARN YOU, REILLY!_ I gritted my teeth, dropped through his arms and aimed a spinning kick to his ankles, like how XANA had Aelita kick Yumi off her feet. Not even waiting until he slammed into the ground, I hit him in the back with the same foot I used and sent him flying into a tree. _And you say you know everything there is to know about me… Tsk tsk, Reilly…_

The vision started to fade to a point where I saw Jeremie laying on the floor, unconscious. A closer look showed a syringe next to him, and I could hear the _other_ whitecoat I hated the most chuckling evilly behind me. It wasn’t hard to find out who had done it, especially from their voice. That voice… _Darn you, Mandy!_ _Can’t Einstein get a break in my visions for once?!_

Before I could see if I would turn and fight, I felt a hard slap bring me back to reality. My eyes unclouded, almost like a video transition, to reveal Sister staring straight at me, a concerned look on her face, and a hand held in midair, which was probably the one she used to slap me with.

“Sister, I’m back. What’s going on?” I defended myself, tensing up in case she tried to do a second slap.

“What happened in your vision, dear sister?” She lowered her hand, as she looked into my eyes.

“A battle, Sister. I didn’t get to see everyone, but Yumi, Ulrich, Max, and I were able to hold our own. T-the downside… my visions have _got_ to deal Jeremie a better hand from the deck. He was only sedated, but still.” I shook my head, before a happy grin flitted across my features, followed by a maniacal giggle. “At least I was able to kick Reilly’s butt! And it felt _so good_ …”

“That’s great!” Sister replied, looking a bit excited initially before her expression slowly calmed to a warm smile. “We could also hear most of your thoughts, while you were having your vision. So everyone in this room, besides Fang, knows most of the things you saw… but we didn’t actually see the vision.”

“But I’d much rather be sedated,” Jeremie commented, relief painting his tone, “than go flying out of the side door of a moving van, and fall off from a bridge.”

“You won’t _believe_ who got _you_ , Jeremie,” I glowered. “And it wasn’t him.”

His mind went back to the thoughts he overheard while my eyes were snowy white, and he made a face that someone would make when telling someone their close relative was just hit by a car. “Ummm… it wouldn’t happen to be, uh… Mandy by any chance… would it?”

“The girl who assigned me to the psycho in the first place,” I confirmed, adding with a sigh, “unfortunately…”

Even though the situation looked bleak, Aelita tried to find a silver lining. “You didn’t see the entire battle, though, did you, Cassidy? You just saw Jeremie about to have his neck stung?”

“He was already on the ground sleeping, Aelita. I heard her laugh from behind me, but as for the location, I don’t know where it will happen. I only saw about five good guys and a few bad in the span of the vision.”

That made even Aelita look a bit worried. Jeremie already had a look of fear on his face, even if he wasn’t as afraid of that, as he was of other things that had happened to him during our ride. He only hoped that he was just being shown part of the journey, and not where they started.

“Oh, if only I had a vision journal to write and draw all of these down,” I lamented, scooping up the pink hair strand in my hands. “I knew I should have bought a notebook and a sketch pad at Walmart, but _someone_ told me otherwise…” I looked pointedly at William.

“Hey!” He held up his hands, defensively. “I thought your visions were over and done with after we left The School!”

“Obviously they weren’t, considering the _near death of our own Jeremie Elvis/Albert Belpois!_ ” I growled. “Oh, and don’t forget about _Kiwi being welcome at this hotel or our Welcome Home party!_ ”

Before _mi ex novio_ could form a reply, I felt a pair of hands come to rest upon my shoulders, calming me down nearly instantly.

“Why don’t we just calm down, okay, sister dear?” As if it wasn’t already obvious who they belonged to, the gentle, cooing voice made it clear. “We’ll go and get you another notebook and sketch pad, before supper. I’m sure there’s another store nearby.”

Her gaze then turned to William. “William sweetheart just… forgot, that’s all.”

“Sorry, Ex-y…” I sighed, a grin slowly slicing through the angry and worried frown I held earlier. “Ironic as it may seem, I forget that people are likely to forget, too, sometimes.”

He smiled apologetically at me. “Oh, you’re fine, Cass.”

Sister’s hands began to give my shoulders a few soft rubs, relaxing me even further. “Yes, it’s true, dear sister.”

“You said you saw a battle, but do you know where it’s taking place, Cassidy?” Aelita asked, finally finding the words to speak. “And at least you didn’t see Jeremie falling off a bridge, this time.”

“I’m just glad it’s better than the _last_ vision I had of Einstein,” I sighed happily in agreement. “One thing is for sure, though: We didn’t have that battle out on the highway. We’d probably end up as roadkill, no humor or pun intended.”

Aelita got a bit of an uneasy look on her face, just from the thought. “But… didn’t you say that we had Max, Fang and the others to help us out?”

“Yeah, I was just saying that we didn’t have our fight literally on the road,” I gently shot back, not wanting to argue with her. “Max saved Ulrich’s day, after all.”

“At least it’s a long ways away,” Sam jumped in, seeming the most relaxed about the entire situation. “It’s not like they’re gonna find us here. So relax!”

“Right,” I grinned sheepishly. “Sorry about that.”

As I started to calm down, Odd walked over to my bed and sat down upon it, so his legs were dangling off the front. “Oh, don’t sweat it, Cat Girl. We have all the time in the world, while we wait for the spa to open!”

“That’s true,” Yumi nodded in agreement, before turning her attention toward the door, getting curious. “And speaking of the spa, I wonder if Hunter’s awake, yet. He’s gonna sleep right through it.”

“I’m sure he is. He may be a heavy sleeper, but he’s gotta wake up some time,” _mi novio_ came in.

“And how would you know that?” I asked, almost word-for-word what Yumi said to Ulrich one time.

“Think of it this way,” Odd replied, extending his right hand forward. “If someone was going to take your clothes off, and rub and wash every inch of you, would _you_ wanna sleep through that?”

“Possibly not,” I giggled.

“The spa isn’t open yet, so maybe he’ll wake up in time,” Yumi suggested, looking hopeful.

“Maybe. It would be no fun without him,” I raised that point.

“I know!” Odd suddenly jumped up, raising his right index finger, and arm, into the air. “Let’s call room service! We’ll have them bring some food into his room, and if _that_ doesn’t wake him up, then maybe someone snuck into his room, and switched him with someone else who looks like Hunter, but is secretly a polymorphic specter! I’ll bet he’s waiting for us to come in, and make sure he’s okay, so he can—huh?”

I started to quake, bringing my knees to my chest, which brought him to a screeching halt. Instead of making me laugh, he was freaking me out, giving me the impression that XANA had come back sooner than we had expected, and was planning on doing crazy things to Aelita and me, first under the guise of Hunter.

 _Mi novio_ ’s eyes widened, realizing he had accidentally gone too far, as a look of fear completely destroyed his comedic expression. “Oh, no… I’m sorry, Cat Girl.” He immediately scooted over, and wrapped his arms around me, snuggling me warmly, with his arms slowly and softly rubbing my back in circles.

Right away, his massage started to work its magic. I uncurled from my position, shaking the fear out of my head and heart. “I-i-it’s okay, Odd, just remember that XANA also unleashed Hell on me, too. He gave me a _Harry Potter_ -like scar. Almost let—uh…never mind… Sore spot in all our memories.”

The room went silent, and I could tell a few of my friends were thinking about what I had suggested, but most had put the thought out of their minds. Thankfully, about ten minutes later, I was able to put the idea down as well, just as a familiar face opened the door to the suite.

“Good morning everyone.” It was Hunter, still sounding a bit groggy, like he had woken up a few minutes prior. “Sorry I’m kinda late.”

“Morning, Hunter. It’s okay,” I smiled, walking toward him and gently wrapping my arms around him. Sure, I may not have the same capabilities as Sister did, but I still wanted him to feel welcome in our room.

It took him a fraction of a second to wrap his arms around me, gently resting his head on my shoulder. “Those beds are really soft and comfortable. I almost didn’t want to get up.”

“Same here, but—” I shot Ulrich a playful glare. “— _somebody_ thought it would be funny to try to prank me awake.”

Ulrich smirked mischievously, as he folded his arms. “Well, at least I didn’t get the Gasman to imitate the super-scan! But I figured Max wouldn’t want me to do that.”

Hunter glanced over at Ulrich. “You do realize that’d freak Aelita out, too, right?”

“Plus, Ulrich, he probably doesn’t know how the sound goes yet—wait…” My eyes widened as I let go of the black-haired programmer. “How do I keep forgetting? He saw it, and possibly the audio’s recorded in his mind. How silly of me!”

“You just didn’t think about it, that’s all!” Sister reassured me calmly, closing her eyes as she smiled.

“True. I guess it didn’t hit me until just now. Anyway, so, Hunter, are you hungry? Odd can order room service, and the breakfast is delicious,” I smiled, ruffling the slightly heavy-lidded electric-green eyed boy’s hair.

I heard him chuckle a bit, grinning as I messed with his already somewhat-disheveled hair before he looked up at me. “Actually, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. My stomach’s probably going to start growling at me, any minute.”

Odd soon found the black-haired programmer’s grin to be contagious, as he directed him over to the phone, picking it up while handing Hunter the menu. It took him a minute to look it over, and tell the spiky blond his request, which _mi novio_ promptly relayed to the room service clerk. With a reply indicating a slight amount of time before it arrived, Odd thanked the clerk and hung up the phone.

“ _Gracias, Novio_ ,” I smiled, reaching over, cupping his chin, and kissing his forehead.

He started to grin widely, letting out a slight giggle, before calming down a bit. “Wow, Cat Girl! You sure know how to let your lips do the talking!”

My smile grew as I lifted my chin, pride washing over me like a wave. “Yep.”

I could hear Sister giggling in the background, her eyes still closed as her clenched teeth held back a fountain of laughter. She could see the way Odd and I acted as boyfriend and girlfriend, and it was nothing short of cute in her eyes.

I could feel another wave of relief hit me as though I was in an ocean of emotions. Throwing my mental shields up, I thought, still smiling, _Sister really does care about me… Why did I let that stupid nightmare rule my ethos?_

It wasn’t long before Jeremie looked over and saw me lost in my thoughts. “What’s on your mind?”

“Just happy to be alive,” I answered.

Even Yumi couldn’t help but grin at that since it was genuine. For once, I didn’t look like I was thinking about something terrible; I was just happy. And that made her even gladder.

“I love it when my dear sister’s happy, too, Yumi, darling,” Sister chimed in, noticing Yumi’s smile. “It really makes my heart sing with joy.”

My shields went down. “Thanks, Sister.”

And soon Odd had come back from the astral plane. “Wow… what a morning!” he commented with a chuckle.

“And it’s just eleven-oh-two,” Kaitlyn smiled.

Fang nodded, his facial expression unwavering. “I’ll join Max and do some extra reconnaissance tomorrow. The Erasers and whitecoats won’t know what hit them.”

“That’s great. Thanks, Fang,” Aelita smiled.

“Don’t mention it. We’re going to get you home no matter what. Hearing you all were victims of The School was bad enough.” He shook his head.

“Good thing you, Jeb, Georgina, Ari, and the rest of the flock came when you did,” I grinned.

“We just couldn’t let any more cruelty happen to you. Nudge worried about all of you, chattering our ears off, and even Max couldn’t cut her off.”

Aelita couldn’t help but giggle when she heard that. All she could think of was the absolute shower of comments Nudge poured upon her when Max and her flock rescued them from The School. To her, that girl was one heck of a chatterbox.

“But you all saved us, Fang,” Yumi reassured him. “I bet that calmed her down a little.”

“Well, she is still All Nudge, All the Time,” I smiled. “Just not when she’s groggy.”

“Oh, she couldn’t sleep at all until the day we rescued you. She was so worried sick, all she would do was talk. Angel couldn’t even calm her down; even with her powers of control, it kinda made things worse. If she wasn’t chattering on about one subject, she would turn to another. But that’s in the past now,” Fang reassured, still with a trademark scowl.

Jeremie grimaced a bit, rubbing the back of his head as he let out a slightly nervous chuckle. “At least she, uh… knows we’re doing okay now, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, and she’s finally getting some sleep, but she’s doing patrols with Max, too.”

“Right now, things seem to be going easy, but I don’t want to tempt fate, considering the first time I did that, we—” I caught a dry glare from the disheveled electric green eyed programmer and stopped myself from going any further. “—I mean, never mind. We’re totally safe now.”

“That’s right!” Odd jumped in, walking over to me, and wrapping an arm around me. “And we’re so safe, we can spend the whole day relaxing! And we should! Let’s just stay at the spa the whole day! And don’t forget the four R’s, Cat Girl!”

“I would love to enjoy that,” I sighed happily.

“Then, why don’t we!” Sister raised her hands into the air, excitedly. “Let’s spend as long as we want to at the spa! I’m sure Jeb’s got enough money so we can spend the entire day getting massages, baths, body scrubs… or anything we want!”

“He did say he and Georgina had a lot of money, and that we shouldn’t worry about it,” I noted, giggling.

“When was the last time we had a chance like this to really pamper ourselves?” Yumi asked, starting to get slightly excited at the thought, as well. “I think all of us, especially you, Cassidy, really deserve this. We could even go for every single treatment they have.”

“I still refuse to go into steam rooms or saunas, and zilch on the wraps, Yumi,” I reminded her, keeping a smile on my face.

“We know, sister dear,” Sister reminded me, gently. “You can go into whatever treatments you like, that aren’t any of those. You should see how many different kinds of baths, massages and body scrubs this place has!”

“And hey, what’s with the shift to Cassidy all of a sudden?” Kaitlyn asked. “Wasn’t it _Hunter_ who had the nightmare?”

I subtly winked to Hunter, hoping he would pick it up as a sign. Throwing my defenses up, I sent a thought to him, _Just roll with it. Right now, they think_ you _had a nightmare and not me._

Hunter was milliseconds from raising an eyebrow in confusion before his eyes widened in reply to my thoughts. His expression began to morph into one of fear as if he was really trying to play it up.

“I was really hoping to forget about that!” Sounding worried, he squeezed his eyes shut, gritted his teeth, and placed his hands on opposite sides of his head, above his ears. “Those stupid cockroaches were all over me! Ugh! They climbed up my legs, went up my shirt, up my sleeves… they were even in my hair! AGH! I thought I had finally put it out of my mind!”

“Sorry, Hunter,” Kaitlyn blushed.

He slowly opened his eyes and looked at her, still appearing quite frazzled by his “dream.” “It’s not your fault… I never really told you how bad it was… I mainly kept it to myself, because I was afraid someone was gonna try to pull me into the bathtub, or even the shower, thinking they could wash me, to get me to relax! But they were even in there, too!! They knew someone would take me there!”

“Just be glad that we didn’t get into contact with them, either,” I soothed, reaching over to rub his back to calm him down. “And that you have brilliant friends to help guide you into a better night’s sleep.”

“Yeah… you’re right.” He leaned forward, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. “Hopefully I don’t get that dream again. Otherwise, that might come in handy…”

“It’s okay, Hunter sweetheart,” Sister smiled. “We all get nightmares.”

Of course, _mi novio_ jumped in. “Yeah! Like one night, Kiwi had turned into a giant, and he was flying around the sky dropping poisoned meatballs. And there I was, swimming around in an ocean of fish batter, but I couldn’t drown…the stuff was too thick.”

Kiwi opened his mouth, surprised, and slightly weirded out, by what his master had just said. “I was a giant dropping poisoned meatballs?! What did you eat that made you dream _that_ up, Odd, Master?!”

“And, _fish batter_?” Kaitlyn shook her head. “You have such weird food-related dreams and nightmares.”

“Potato epidemics that scared him to think that French Fries were about to be taken off the school’s menu, and there was that one from The School about it raining the titular fries, hamburgers being his buddies and them hooking him up with a strawberry milkshake, with a hot fudge sundae running around in their backyard,” I listed, giggling. Sure, the memory afterward turned relaxing, then dangerous, then back around and so on, but now, the dream _mi novio_ had was more of a funny one.

“And she was really delicious, Cat Girl!” Odd commented, remembering the dream just as well as I did. “Oh, you should have been there! Kiwi would’ve been really good friends with that hot fudge sundae!”

“You remember what Odd dreamt at that hellhole?!” Kaitlyn stared at me, as though more of my hair had turned pink.

“I was awake for him to even recite it to Yumi and me,” I defended, a smile on my face.

Odd couldn’t help but chuckle at this. “That’s my Cat Girl! Her memory is as good as mine!”

My cheeks heated up. “Oh, please, Odd. I’m just remembering. Remembering along, that’s me.”

Jeremie smiled in agreement. “She does have an excellent memory, that’s for sure. She’s even helped me remember to double-check lines of code that I wasn’t sure about, whenever I’m programming.”

“Yeah, but most times were due to my powers helping you out as much as they could manage. When I started to lose their strength, I could barely code anything, not even a bouncing dot to save our skins,” I blinked but kept a smile on my face.

“But now that they’re back,” Odd looked in my direction, with a grin on his face, “you can help him out again! Maybe even Hunter can help you, Einstein, and Aelita, too!”

“I guess so, but I don’t know if they remember how to program things. They feel a little different, but as to what, I don’t know.” I shook my head.

“We can figure that out when we get back to Kadic,” Ulrich jumped in, hoping to stop me from feeling terrible, again. “Right now, we don’t need to worry about writing programs to try and stop XANA, do we? For all we know, no news is good news.”

“And he’s been weak. No activated towers,” Jeremie noted. “And this time, the Super-Scan isn’t resetting itself, so I’m sure I’m getting the right results.”

“At least it’s actually studying, Einstein,” Odd cracked.

While Fang looked slightly confused, the twelve of us burst into laughter at Odd’s comment. Not long after, we heard a knock at the door, followed by a busboy bringing a cart of food in; Hunter’s breakfast.

“Epic! Now _that’s_ galactic dancing!” the black-haired programmer exclaimed as he noticed the food cart before the busboy handed him a couple of plates. He soon thanked the man, who then left.

“Eat up, Hunter,” I giggled. “You need it.”

“Thanks!” he replied with a slight chuckle of his own, as he sat down upon one of the beds, placing the second plate nearby while holding the first in his hands.

Interestingly, before he started eating, the eleven of us heard him think about something that we weren’t expecting. _Mmm… thank you, Lord, for this wonderful food that I have received..._

We subtly nodded, smiles across our faces. Almost as if he caught himself, he looked up, with a slight expression of worry, before calming down, as he noticed our smiles. We didn’t mind him praying quietly since it didn’t really harm anything.

“Dig in, Hunter,” I encouraged.

He chuckled a bit more, calming back down again as he reached for a fork on the plate that had since moved into his lap. “With pleasure.”

And with that, he started in, going for the egg and bagels first, the latter of which had been covered in cream cheese.

“So, after he gets done, how about a nice day at either the spa or at any of the amenities?” Aelita suggested, looking around the room at the others.

“Sounds good to me,” I smiled. “I definitely need to relax.”

“You’re right,” Sister agreed, smiling warmly at me. “And I think we all need to. Let’s just spend a good part of our day at the spa. Why don’t we come up with what we’re all going to do, so we can plan our spa day out?”

“I definitely would love to do aromatherapy, a facial, then a coconut milk bath, followed by a nice massage,” I chimed in first.

Sister walked over to one of the drawers and grabbed a notepad, which had been placed atop it. Taking the pen near the room service menu, she began to jot down my spa treatment suggestions underneath my name, before starting to scribble something else underneath the massage.

Of course, it hadn’t gone unnoticed, much to her surprise.

“Hey, Sissi… isn’t that—?” Ulrich began.

“Ulrich honey! Didn’t anyone tell you that it’s impolite to read over someone’s shoulder, huh?” she scolded gently.

Samurai’s eyes widened, as he stopped himself. “Uh…right. Sorry, Sissi.”

“I think I’d like to go for a body shampoo,” Yumi suggested next, “and then I’ll try aromatherapy, too, before I get a massage.”

“I’ll start with a body scrub,” Odd followed with his suggestions. “As much as I enjoyed those baths, I can’t wait to see how that Vichy shower feels! Afterward, I’ll go for some relaxing rubs.”

His attention then turned to a flyer for the hotel’s spa, which was also perched atop the same dresser that also held the phone. Grabbing it, he gave it a once-over, to figure out exactly what kind of massages he wanted to get.

“Ah! Shiatsu looks great! And then… ooh, a sports massage! And a hot stone massage, too! Then a full-body massage, afterward. Odd the Magnificent’s gotta have really soft, smooth skin, you know!”

“You know it, Odd, Master,” Kiwi yipped. “Do they have any kinds of massages for dogs?”

“Yep!” Odd lowered the flyer to Kiwi’s level. “They’ve got an animal massage!”

“Great!” Kiwi barked excitedly. “That sounds perfect for me!”

Next, he handed the flyer to Sam, whose eyes scanned it quickly.

“I love the idea of a sports massage,” she began, reading off from the list of spa treatments. “Maybe I’ll go for a hot stone massage, too. But I’ll probably start with a body shampoo, then a scrub, and a seaweed wrap—it looks gross, but it’s gotta feel good—before they give me a hot stone massage.”

“Let me see that,” William asked before the flyer was handed to him. “Hmm… hey, a body scrub sounds killer! A sports massage sounds good, too. Maybe a really long one.”

He then handed the flyer to Patrick, who ran through the items in his head, before choosing a few. “Count me in for a body scrub, too… as well as shiatsu, sports, hot stone, and full-body massage. They all sound really awesome.”

Then it was Kaitlyn’s turn. “I haven’t had a facial in I don’t know how long! That, along with a body scrub, would be perfect! And nice, a coconut milk bath! I’ll totally get one of those, too!”

She then handed it to Ulrich. I could tell Samurai already had a slight idea of what he wanted, but his eyes widened when he noticed all of the other available treatments. “Hmm… maybe I’ll start with a steam bath. A good sports massage would be great after that. Then, how about floating in the isolation chamber? And a full-body massage to finish it off.”

When she got the flyer next, Aelita was also amazed by the sheer number of things she could choose from. “I guess I could start with a coconut milk bath. It sounds heavenly. And what’s this ‘Rainbow Rain’? Getting water poured on you, like a shower, while someone massages differently colored clays all over your body? I think I’ll try that, too. And a good, full-body massage, afterward. I wonder if I could get them to massage my whole body for a good, long time?”

“If we’re all going to stay for as long as we want, Aelita darling,” Sister commented with a warm grin on her face, “they should massage you all over, for hours on end, for all we care!”

Even Jeremie let out a slight chuckle at that, as his darling pink-haired girlfriend handed him the flyer, next. “Let’s see, now… I could probably go for a hot stone massage… hopefully, the stones aren’t too hot… but then a body shampoo might be a great idea. Then they could give me a full-body massage afterward—especially if I still have a few knots left over in my back. Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Hunter had finished his egg, and was halfway through the first half of his bagel, as his eyes watched Jeremie holding the flyer. As I glanced over at him, knowing Jeremie was going to pass it his way, something told me he didn’t want to be the next one to hold it.

“Hunter?” I asked.

He looked up at me and blinked, almost as if I had caught him off-guard. “Y-yeah? Uh… what’s up?”

“Are you okay?”

He placed his bagel back upon the plate that sat in his lap. “Y-y-y-y… kinda. Why?”

“You look like you’re about to, um…how did I put it at one point…laugh at lions,” I blinked.

He found my blinking contagious, before quickly glancing over at Jeremie, as though he was wondering where the flyer went, before returning his gaze to me. “Um… really? I, uh… I guess I’m… well, I mean, I’m not sick… but, uh… I’m just watching you guys, uh… pick out what spa treatments you want… I guess.”

“Are you worried about it?” Aelita asked, concerned, noticing the look on his face, as well.

His eyes darted over to her, and I could tell he was trying not to grit his teeth. “Well, uh…”

“You don’t have to go on if you don’t feel like it,” I soothed, walking toward him and rubbing his back.

That did calm him some, as he closed his eyes, and let out a sigh. “I just… didn’t want to bring any of you guys down… you’re having your happy moment, going to the spa… and I didn’t want to ruin the mood by saying no.”

“But if you feel this way, Hunter dear,” Sister jumped in, calmly walking over next to me, and softly rubbing his back as well, “then you really _should_ go to the spa with us, too! There are so many wonderful things they can do for you!”

While he enjoyed the soft caress of both Sister’s and my hands, the former snob’s suggestion didn’t really sit well with him. “Maybe… but I’d really rather not. Spas have never really been my thing.”

“It’s just because they offer baths, and other things that involve rubbing your naked body while you’re soaking wet, isn’t it?” she gently challenged him.

Hunter let out another sigh. “That’s most of it. I listened to everything you guys picked out, and really… I don’t feel the need to have someone else pay somebody to rub me when Georgina can do that for free. And at least they come out and tell you what they do with the coconut milk bath; with the body shampoo, it’s a bit more cryptic, but it’s still a fancy way of getting a bath!”

“Hunter, it’s okay,” Yumi came in, trying to calm him down. “You really don’t have to go with us. Nobody’s forcing you. You can stay in here, and rest and relax on your own, or even do something else if you want to.”

“Yeah,” Odd interjected. “The spa doesn’t have to be for everybody.”

“I even had an experience with a spa, and I wasn’t even dressed in my bathrobe yet,” I blinked.

He raised an eyebrow. “When did _that_ happen?”

“About a month and a week or two ago,” I guessed. “It was nothing serious, I can assure you. Um… Aelita, would you explain it? Because I know that Yumi and Sister were getting dressed elsewhere.”

Aelita nodded, only taking a short moment to remember the sequence of events for herself. “Cassidy was worried, almost like you are right now, the first time she went to a spa. She felt like she was worrying too much, but she still had nerves about what was going to happen. But after she went through the treatments Sissi had picked out for her, she really got into it.”

“And it untied my nerves so perfectly. I think getting smuggled over here took its toll on my psyche and retied every knot.” I shook my head, about as exasperated as my former first roommate when William charged head-first into battle.

Hunter returned his gaze to the carpeted floor, and let out another sigh. “Yeah… I can understand that. Maybe that’s what I’m worried about, too. The whole ‘first time at a spa’ thing… or the fact that you can actually get a team of masseuses to wash every inch of your body.” He shook his head at that.

Doing my best, I took a really deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right, Hunter. And I’m sorry that our darker memories kept resurfacing like recent debris in a shipwreck.”

“It’s fine…” he replied, his head staying in place. “Of course, I’m one to talk, because I sometimes get the same thing… but… sometimes it’s just hard to fight. Hard to turn it off. Everyone else acts like there’s some sort of magic switch on the back of your head that they can flip, and whenever you ask them to, they laugh.”

“I think it affected your subconsciousness,” I winked, keeping up with the lie.

His gaze lifted off from the floor, and found me once again, just as I did that. “Yeah, maybe you’re right. So, let’s say that I actually do come with you guys to the spa. If I just want a massage, they’re probably going to drape me, aren’t they… Georgina’s the only one I know who will massage me while I’m naked, and I don’t want them to—”

Suddenly, he ground himself to a halt, fearing what we would think if he finished his sentence. Whatever he was going to say that made him stop there, it really made me start to worry.

“Hunter?” I asked, concern rising as something familiar started to make my body shake—and I knew it wasn’t a vision.

Before the black-haired programmer had a chance to reply, Sister ran over and slowly wrapped her arms around me, embracing me with a soothing back rub.

“Please calm down, dear sister,” she cooed, hoping to stop me from shaking my way into a meltdown.

Slowly, her massage helped me relax. “S-sorry, Sister.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she soothed. “I’m sure whatever caused Hunter to stop isn’t something he feels comfortable sharing, at the moment. Maybe he’ll come around, another time.”

She then looked over at Hunter, as her hands continued caressing my back, through my shirt. “Besides, he doesn’t seem very stressed out. I think he was more worried about us, or how we would think about what he was about to say.”

“Right…” A smile slowly sliced through the anxious thoughts I had.

“I-i-i-it’s nothing, anyway,” Hunter tried to dismiss it, putting on his best smile, and waving his hand back and forth, like he was swatting at invisible flies.

“See?” Sister turned her attention back to me, slowly starting to grin, reassuringly.

I nodded, my body calming down. “At least you’re helping me calm down. I would hate for my empathy to make me have another run-in with a sedative.”

Jeremie grimaced a bit, letting out a nervous chuckle. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about _that_ anymore, Cassidy. Especially not with Sissi’s healing abilities.”

“Yes. She’s helped me a lot,” I smiled more.

“I would say she’s helped all of us,” Aelita chimed in, smiling warmly as well. “And a day at the spa will help all of us even more.”

“What do you think, Hunter?” I asked.

Hunter didn’t seem convinced, however. “Well… I really don’t know…”

So Sister decided to try something. Gently breaking her embrace with me, handing me to Yumi, she gently sat down on the bed, next to the black-haired programmer, and wrapped her arms around him, as he set his plate down on the bed, on the opposite side.

“I really think you should go with us, Hunter dear,” she cooed, as she then started to softly rub his back. “Whatever it is that you’re worried about will go away. And I think you should start with a bath. A coconut milk bath, even. That way we can find out if that makes your skin slimy, too, or not. Besides, once they start washing you, I know you’ll relax. Why don’t you look at the flyer that Jeremie has? Better yet… let _me_ decide for you. I happen to know a few things that you’re bound to enjoy, even if _you_ don’t think you will.”

That seemed to have an effect on him, as he took a deep breath. “...okiday.”

“There… that wasn’t so hard, was it?” she soothed, before turning her attention toward Jeremie, extending her hand, and receiving the spa flyer from him. “Here… look at all of the wonderful things they can do for you! All of the different kinds of massages… essential oils, clays… they’ve even got an isolation chamber! It’s just a big pool of water that you can float naked in, and it helps you relax, because it plugs your ears, and you can close your eyes…”

I could see Hunter’s eyes light up at a part of Sister’s speech; however, the exact part was lost on me. “See? You seem happy to hear something that’s straight up your alley.”

Hunter chuckled a bit, slightly nervously, as he momentarily turned his gaze on me. “Yeah… you’re right. Maybe I’ll go for that, after my coconut milk bath, like Sissi suggested. And then… I could probably go for two of these massages…”

“That’s great, Hunter. I’m sure you’ll love it,” Yumi commented, smiling warmly at him.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Hunter ended up going with two massages—a full-body essential oil massage, and a regular full-body massage, both multi-hour sessions, like the rest of us—in addition to the isolation chamber, and the coconut milk bath Sister suggested he get. With that, the principal’s daughter’s list of spa treatments had been completed, and the black-haired programmer, feeling better than before, returned to his food. Not long after he had finished, it had soon become noon, and time to head down to the spa.

A few of us were a bit nervous, as Jeremie, Hunter, Ulrich, William, Kaitlyn, Patrick and Sam left to return to their suites, while Sister, Aelita, Odd, Yumi, and I took turns in the bathroom, taking off all of our clothes, before putting on one of the soft, terrycloth bathrobes the hotel had left near the shower. Once it was my turn, I loved how soft and gentle it felt against my bare body, almost as if someone was giving me a warm snuggly hug, dressed in one of those cuddly monster costumes that’s completely covered in a soft, felt-like fur. It even contained my wings just nicely. My robe in France seemed to run home crying to its mama.

With all of us dressed in our bathrobes, we all met up in the foyer of the hotel, to head toward the spa area. Once there, we split into each of our respective first treatments: a body shampoo for Yumi, an animal massage for Kiwi that Odd took him to get, before joining Patrick and William for body scrubs, a sports massage for Sam, a facial for Kaitlyn, a steam bath for Ulrich, a hot stone massage for Jeremie, coconut milk baths for Hunter and Aelita, and aromatherapy for me.

Upon entering the room where I would receive my first treatment, the relaxing, inviting smell of lavender filled my nostrils, almost calming me right away. I closed my eyes as I took a deep, peaceful breath, welcoming the wonderful aroma into my lungs, filling me with a feeling of relaxation. Of course, that was only a taste of what was to come; I was soon directed to stretch my arms outward, perpendicular to my sides, which allowed them to gently unfasten the ties that held my robe closed in the front. As I watched them slowly pull my robe backward and off from me, I didn’t let bother me the fact that they could see every inch of my body; this was a requirement for every single one of my, and the others’, spa treatments. Wearing a swimsuit, or being draped in some fashion just would not have worked, especially not for what had been planned for me.

I was soon led onto a very soft-looking bed, as one of the spa officials started playing some gentle, ambient music from a stereo sound system. As I laid on my belly, with my head turned to the right, I could see a wooden table near the bed, with different oils and creams placed upon it. Taking the time to look at the labels on a few of the bottles, the spa official who started the music walked over next to the bed, lifted one of the bottles, and poured a generous amount into her hand, before rubbing both of her hands together several times. It was only a matter of moments before her soft, cream-caked hands slowly touched down upon my bare back, but I didn’t feel the urge to shiver; her hands were quite warm, and so was the cream, much to my slight surprise. She began slowly, softly and soothingly working the cream all over my bare upper and lower back, starting from the back of my neck, just below my head—my hair was gently moved out of the way, beforehand—down to just above my butt, exploring my back half in such a gentle, invigorating way, that the relaxation couldn’t be stopped, no matter what sort of barricade you built. It started with a mild, essential oil-infused cream, which was soon rubbed all over my arms, my hands, my shoulders, my sides, the backs of my legs, and the bottoms of my feet—even though I tried not to laugh from my ticklish side—, before the official’s hands were briskly rubbed against a towel several times to remove the excess cream, and a soothing, relaxing, gentle and soft massage began, further working the cream into my bare skin.

Once it was dry, she followed with a few different essential oils, soothingly rubbing them across each part, before gently helping me to flip over, so she could begin the process again on my front half, cream, oils and all. After my skin was given a chance to dry at the end, I was gently helped off from the bed, and my robe was slid back over my arms, and the rest of my body, before being gently tied in the front, again. After such an enjoyable experience, I couldn’t wait to get to my next treatment, which was a facial.

Throughout each of my treatments, I felt each one of the knots in my back, the breakouts on my face, as well as the emotional baggage that had plagued me since the start of the adventure, slowly vanish. After the facial came a coconut milk bath, exactly like the ones Hunter and Aelita got, while I was undergoing aromatherapy. I could try to explain how indescribably wonderful and amazing that felt, laying in a deep tub filled with soothingly warm coconut milk, while two spa officials softly, slowly, soothingly, gently and thoroughly washed absolutely every inch of my body at the same time, with an invigorating cream-based bath soap, a process that took nearly an hour, if not longer… but let’s just say that Georgina’s got some competition. After a massage-dry with very soft, gentle towels, the full-body massage was fourth, and two hours later, every single knot was gone from my back, even some that I didn’t even know were there.

It was then that I was told about a fifth treatment, something that was not only unexpected, but I also didn’t even realize Sister had ordered one. I hadn’t mentioned anything to her, and while I had heard Samurai’s random comment before being shushed and gently reprimanded, I had no idea what it could have possibly meant. A spa official offered to lead me to the treatment room, and when I got there, and my robe was once again gently removed, I got a pleasant surprise: Sister had arranged for me to have a Rainbow Rain—the same that Aelita was interested in earlier! She must have read up on what it was meant for, and decided I needed it. Laying upon another table, the gentle, soft shower across most of my bare body felt invigorating, as differently-colored clays, including ones that soothed nerves, and others that removed worry were softly and slowly rubbed all across every inch of my body. It was so much better than I expected, especially since I didn’t even know I was going to get one in the first place.

Soon, six hours had slipped between our fingers and toes, much to our great surprise, and a few of us parted ways. Jeremie spoke to Hunter, before bringing him back up into their suite with him, Odd booked it for the restaurant, William, Patrick, and Kaitlyn on his heels, Max, Ari, and her flock went to do more reconnaissance, Jeb and Georgina went to the tennis court to have a round or two, while Yumi, Aelita, Sister, Ulrich, Sam, Kiwi, and I went up into our respective suites, exchanged our robes for swimsuits (except in Kiwi’s case), and came back down to step into the hot tub for a nice, long dip, bringing an excellent full stop to our spa day.

“Ahh… That was great…” I exhumed, letting the hot tub’s jets soothe me. “This is a spa day I’ll never forget…”

“You’re right,” Yumi agreed. “And I thought that one spa we went to for our girls’ day out was great.”

“It still is, but I think my psyche really needed this, and I just didn’t know it,” I smiled.

“You have stressed out so much, dear sister,” Sister replied. “I even added one more treatment to see if it would help.”

“Well, it was a surprise, but that really hit the spot, Sister. Definitely soothed me down. I think I’ll sleep well tonight.”

Her tone then turned slightly sharp, though her voice was still pretty relaxed. “You’re still not sleeping alone, ya got that, dear sister? I don’t care how tired you were last night.”

“That’s okay, Sister. I wasn’t planning on doing that, either,” I agreed. “Considering… _that_ …I’d rather sleep near a partner than get another one of those.”

As we stopped talking for a moment, my eyes happened to land upon Kiwi, who was laying on the topmost rung of the small stairway that led into the hot tub, just staring at the water, almost as if he was watching something under the surface.

“Are you okay, Kiwi?” I asked.

“Yeah, just thinking that Tutu would’ve loved to sit in a ritzy hot tub like this,” he woofed sadly.

Yumi’s face fell a bit, as she sympathized with Odd’s canine companion. I could even tell that she missed her family, too. “Aww… but don’t worry, Kiwi. I’m sure when we get back to France, you’ll have plenty of time to spend with her, and the two of you might even be able to soak in a hot tub then, too.”

“And it’s like I told the others today, Kiwi. I miss Milly and Tamiya, so you aren’t alone, there,” I blinked.

“We all have people we miss back in France,” Aelita soothed, her calm smile matching the sympathy in her voice. “Almost everyone in this hot tub misses their parents, including me. But we know we’ll see them again, soon.”

“This has been hard for everyone, but hearing Franz’s voice really helped me,” I brought up.

“I guess it’s not too bad,” Kiwi nodded, sitting up. “Tutu is to me as Akila is to Total.”

I reached over with a dry hand and petted him behind the ears. “Yeah… it might feel bad now, but we made it to Las Cruces yesterday. Tomorrow, we are going to Denver. Pretty soon, we’ll be back to France before we know it.”

He wagged his tail, his tongue hanging out in a goofy fashion. “You’re right, Cassidy.”

My former first roommate couldn’t help but giggle at this, closing her eyes as she did, which only made her already sweet smile even sweeter.

“Besides, my Tutu will be waiting, and I’m going to treat her like a queen when I return!” he boasted.

That just struck my funny bone. He sounded exactly like _mi novio_ , which sent me into a fit of laughs, clutching my belly as I leaned back against the edge of the hot tub. The others couldn’t resist chuckling as they saw this.

“That sounds just like what Odd would do if Cassidy disappeared for a long time,” Yumi commented in-between giggles.

Right away, my laughter ceased, eyes widening as a sheepish smile spread across my lips. “I, uh… think that Odd’s already doing that, considering that I ‘disappeared’ for three months, then again for, as you all remember and I don’t, three hours.”

“Well, it’s only fair,” Sister replied, folding her arms as an all-knowing grin spread across her face. “After all the things my poor sister went through! Now he won’t leave you alone, which is a good thing in my eyes!”

“It is a good thing in my eyes, too,” I agreed, still feeling sheepish.

Aelita could hear the slight embarrassment in my voice, as she slowly reached over, and softly rubbed my upper back and shoulders, through my swimsuit. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. Everything’s under control now. And besides, Kiwi could always give you a belly rub, up in our suite, or in the bathroom.”

In reply, I wrapped my arms around her, giggling. “Aelita, I’m so glad that, along with everyone else, you’re my roommate.”

“And I can always do that, Princess,” Kiwi yipped.

Aelita started giggling, closing her eyes as she leaned forward, holding her left hand up by her mouth. It only served to remind her exactly how much Kiwi was totally Odd’s pet dog if it wasn’t already blatantly obvious enough.

“Well, we already know who came up with that nickname,” Ulrich quipped.

I nodded in agreement. “And I fell in love with Kiwi’s cuteness a long time ago.”

It was then that Sam turned a curious eye toward me. “How long ago was it?”

“At first sight,” I smiled.

“You had a view of my tail, though, Cassidy. Not very much cuteness back there,” Kiwi grinned, his tongue still out in a goofy fashion.

“After I came into Odd’s room alone, silly boy,” I corrected.

“Was that the time you blindfolded Odd,” Aelita asked, out of nowhere, “and brought him to the factory, the first time?”

At first, my eyes widened, as I wondered, with my shields raised, _How the hell did she know? She was stuck on Lyoko at the time—wait… the monster._ Then they relaxed as I nodded. “Yep. He was confused, but he got to be the first teenaged boy to be virtualized.”

We spent another half hour in the hot tub, just chit-chatting back and forth about nearly anything before we all decided to get out. Taking some time to dry off, before draping our own towels over our shoulders, we made our way back to our individual suites to get changed and decide on what we were going to do, next.

As Sister, Yumi, Aelita, Kiwi, and I walked back into ours, we met back up with Odd, who looked quite pleased with the time he spent in the restaurant.

“Nice to see you all again, ladies,” Odd greeted, rubbing his belly happily. “And I’m glad to see you, too, my little diggity dog.”

“We had a great time, Odd, Master,” Kiwi smiled, wagging his tail.

“Faaaan-tastic!” _mi novio_ grinned, before gesturing toward my bed. My eyes lit up when I noticed what he was pointing at. “Oh, by the way, Cat Girl, Georgina brought Hippity, and all your stuffed ponies up to your suite, while we were at the spa. Cool, huh!”

Not only was I excited by this, but at first, the words buried themselves in my mouth. “Oh, Odd, that’s just so…” And that was the last somewhat coherent sentence I was able to make before my vowels and consonants all jumbled themselves together in sheer gladness.

Sister soon saw this, walking over to me, and softly rubbing my shoulders, which immediately calmed me down somewhat. “Don’t worry, dear sister. We all know exactly how excited you are to have Hippity with you.”

“Remind me in the morning to hug Georgina when we pile into the van,” I giggled.

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll forget something like that,” she cooed happily before her tone turned slightly serious. “But don’t forget what I told you, about who’s going to be sleeping with you, tonight. Your bed is plenty big enough for you, me, and Aelita!”

“True,” I nodded. “I am so glad that you two helped me last night.”

“We didn’t want you to have another nightmare,” Aelita replied with a warm smile. “You and Yumi have always told me how sleeping with someone, or something, always helps you sleep better.”

“And we weren’t about to let you have anything but pleasant dreams if we could help it!” Sister added, matter-of-factly. “Only the best for _my_ dear sister, after all!”

I ended up giggling a bit at that, even though I knew she was right. With the two of them as my virtual teddy bears, along with Hippity and my ponies, if I had a bad dream tonight, I would have to blame it on something else. Besides, the beds were just indescribably amazing, just like our entire experience at this hotel. Could anything possibly ruin it?

While I was lost in my thoughts, a certain spiked blond spoke up, thinking about something he liked to think about, a lot.

“Hey, do any of you ladies feel hungry? I could call room service,” Odd suggested.

I blinked, feeling my stomach growl in response. “Apparently, that sounds good to me.”

“Yes, please, Odd, Master! I love the dog food here. Definitely helped me out,” Kiwi agreed.

“That’s a great idea!” Sister chimed in, grinning once more.

“I wouldn’t mind going for something right about now,” Yumi agreed, softly rubbing her towel against her shoulders.

“I wouldn’t, either,” Aelita added, bringing her towel up to dry her hair further. “I wonder what they serve for lunch and dinner, here?”

To answer her question, Odd brought her the menu flyer once more, which, after glancing at it herself, she passed around to Yumi, Sister, Aelita and I, before I handed it back to him. With our orders in mind, _mi novio_ picked up the phone and directly told room service what each of us wanted to order. It was a somewhat-quick fifteen-minute delay, to which we chit-chatted again between getting back into our night clothes, before a few bellhops entered the room, bringing carts of different foods with them, and we all dug in.

You know how good I thought the breakfast food that came from the hotel’s restaurant tasted? I didn’t know the lunch and dinner food could taste any better… but it proved me wrong. Every bite was almost like someone gave me a warm snuggle and personally fed me. The word ‘delicious’ didn’t even begin to describe it. I could just imagine Sister trying to figure out where chefs like these came from and possibly having her own, and my substitute, father hire similar ones, to work alongside Rosa and Charles in the cafeteria at Kadic. Of course, knowing her, she’d probably try to get Lyoko HQ private chefs of our own, but Mr. Delmas would have to draw the line, somewhere. Mainly if she was thinking of asking for what I thought she was going to ask for, back at the School.

“That was so good, Odd…” I sighed happily, copying the motion _mi novio_ had done earlier.

He couldn’t help but chuckle, his never-changing stomach in pure bliss, as well. “They should come to work at Kadic! Having their food, along with Rosa’s, would be incredible!”

“I’ve only been in the cafeteria once, and I regret it,” Kiwi lamented. “That stupid ghost! I really didn’t mean to bite you, that one girl, or Jeremie, Odd, Master.”

“Don’t worry about it, Kiwi,” I reassured, reaching over to rub his belly. “It was out of your control.”

In response, _mi novio’s_ diggity-dog started laughing, kicking his hind-leg in the air. “You’re right, Cassidy.”

“I know you’d never bite me anyway, Kiwi,” Odd further reasoned with him, bending down near his level, “if you could help it.”

“At one point, he actually helped me get out of vision mode,” I remembered. “Just a simple nip on my ankle, didn’t break my skin at all.”

Yumi also recalled that particular event, as she brought her hand up to the back of her head. “I was too surprised by what you saw in your vision to react in time, but luckily, Kiwi was faster.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Plus I did get a blinding headache that went away after he did that. My powers back then, I swear…”

“But you were under a lot of stress back then,” Aelita calmly reminded me. “And they have calmed down quite a bit, up to now.”

“Yeah, the only thing my visions do is just make me shake before they hit. I don’t know why they do that now since my first one in ages didn’t even come like that,” I blinked.

“I don’t think any of us understand that,” Yumi lamented, looking confused. “Your powers have always been really confusing.”

“Thanks for the encouragement,” I sighed, lowering my head.

“She doesn’t mean it like that, dear sister,” Sister stepped in, sliding over toward me on my bed, and softly rubbing my back, through my shirt, between my wings. “Besides, your psychic powers have been more of a help, than a hideous.”

I raised my head to hers, an amused smirk starting to grow. “That’s a _hindrance_ , Sister.”

She paused her hands, momentarily. “Yeah, that!”

And that’s when Odd decided to join in. “No, Cat Girl! Your powers have never been _hideous_ , either! Think of how many things we might have gotten into, if you hadn’t seen right through it, and stopped us!”

That did it. I swung back onto my bed and cackled. If anyone, besides Yumi, Aelita, Kiwi, and Sister, had any ideas on how to make my day happy, it was _mi novio_.

“Odd certainly knows how to cheer her up,” Aelita agreed, giggling a bit herself.

“That’s for sure,” Yumi added, grinning with her eyes closed.

“Let’s make sure she can get some rest tonight, too,” Kiwi smiled.

“Yes!” Sister agreed, raising her right index finger into the air, triumphantly. “She’ll get all the pampering she needs, and then some! I’m sure Georgina wouldn’t mind giving her the works! An incredibly soothing, warm, soft and thorough full-body wipe, with a warm, wet washcloth! Then a nice, long, full-body rub, ending with an incredibly relaxing, soothing, soft, gentle, invigorating and rejuvenating bath in our whirlpool bathtub, joined by Georgina and yours truly, giving her the most relaxing, soothing, soft, gentle and thorough head-to-toe wash she’s ever felt, second only to the coconut milk bath she was given at the spa! In fact, maybe Georgina might be able to get some of that milk, and even the cream-based bath soap they used, so we all can get a soothing, relaxing and thorough head-to-toe wash, and have incredibly soft, silky smooth skin all over! With the three of us, she’ll sleep so soundly, the world would have to blow up before she woke up!”

“I meant just for tonight, Sissi. We have tomorrow to think about that after we get to Denver,” he chuckled. “From the way she petted me, her hands feel really soft to the touch, now.”

Sister giggled, somewhat sheepishly, in reply. “Well, I’m sure we could still do most of that, couldn’t we?”

“Yep,” I came up for air. “That was great.”

Odd nodded, a smile on his face. “Ya see? She’s eating out of my hand.”

Soon, a few hours had passed, and everyone had had a chance to do their own thing, to some extent. Jeremie had challenged Hunter to program a small game within a limited time frame, and was careful not to overwhelm or overload the black-haired programmer—even if he was already quite relaxed from the spa—but was definitely intrigued by his skill, even though it wasn’t any match for the blond genius’ own. Ulrich read the newest _Blaze_ comic he found at Walmart, before joining Odd, Sam, and William in the hotel’s game room, starting with a few rounds of foosball and ending with a few arcade games. Yumi, Aelita, Sister, Kiwi, and I spent most of our time talking about one subject or another. Patrick and Kaitlyn went for a walk around the hotel, while Max and her flock, along with Jeb and Ari made a few sweeps of the surrounding area, before getting their own well-deserved spa experience, a few hours before it closed.

Before everyone knew it, the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon, and the lights from Las Cruces lit up the night sky, blotting out all of the stars in the beautiful cityscape. Having a beautiful, fun-filled day, each of us soon took our turns in each suite’s bathroom, getting ourselves ready for bed, before Georgina came in, to give each of us a soothing, gentle, and relaxing back massage, under our shirts and between our wings, including parts of our wings themselves. With this, most of us had no trouble falling asleep, especially me, with Sister and Aelita at my side, and my entire collection of stuffed ponies, including Hippity, to keep me company. After some parting words, and more gentle rubs from them, my eyes soon found they had a hard time staying open, and it wasn’t long before I drifted off, my thoughts filled with wonder and curiosity about what awaited us in Denver, the following day.

Boy, would we get a big surprise…


	20. Onward to Battle

**Hunter Moebius and I don't own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois.** **We do, however, own our own OC’s and the plot.**

Did I ever tell you how fantastic this bed is? Sure, the others were sleeping in really relaxing beds as well, but… I had never, ever slept on a mattress this soft, this relaxing… it’s almost as though Georgina was soothingly rubbing my back, and maybe even my arms, sides and shoulders, while I slept.

And tonight I had a much better dream; whether that’s thanks to having my entire collection of stuffed ponies, Hippity, Aelita and Sister, or any combination of the three, if not the soft bed itself, is anyone’s guess. You might think that Reilly took over again, but he didn’t. Instead, it was a montage of happy memories gently washing over any of my negative thoughts, actions or feelings, like a luxurious, invigorating and relaxing bath with Georgina and Sister at Dr. Martinez’s place. I was entirely sure the others had to have been having wonderful dreams, as well, especially in beds this soft, no matter who they slept with, whether stuffed animal or another person.

Of course, no sooner did I think about this than I was gently pulled from my dream by none other than Odd, My Protective Knight, Della Robbia. I had woken up a few seconds after he did, and not only was he curious about my fantastic dream, but he had a fascinating one of his own.

“I just had the most amazing dream ever, Cat Girl!” he spoke, still half-asleep, but with a big grin on his face. I never knew that somebody would be that way, but with Odd, it was like Pinkie Pie—don’t question their logic; it’ll drive you crazy. “It’s so amazing, it’s even better than that dream I had about the raining fries and the strawberry milkshake!”

“What was it about this time?” I asked, this time genuinely intrigued. The last time _mi novio_ had a beautiful dream, it was before the surgery that gave us wings, and I was half-hearted, making him worried that I had a nightmare.

“Kiwi _finally_ went to Lyoko!” he exclaimed, barely being able to hold his excitement back, which slowly woke him up even further. “Not like that time where I tried to stuff him in my backpack, and he went into your scanner, but… he went to Lyoko for real! And he looked really cool! He was walking on two legs, and he was wearing this really cool armor… and he had a spear! Oh, and he had wings, too! A Tarantula walked over to him, sat down and started firing at him, and he—”

I couldn’t help but start laughing. Kiwi on Lyoko? Sure, we all knew what happened, the first time he tried that, but if his diggity-dog was seriously going to look like _that_ , if he got to Lyoko the _right_ way, I know Ulrich, Aelita, and I would’ve had a good laugh. Maybe even Patrick would have, too, after his own form got fixed, even if _mi novio_ would have gotten angry at us for getting a kick out of Kiwi’s avatar. A gigantic dog walking on two legs?

At first, Odd started to look a bit surprised at me, raising one eyebrow as laughter escaped my lips like lava from a volcano, before shrugging, and beginning to laugh as well, glad that I had woken up in a great mood. He figured I was probably laughing at his description, but in the back of his mind, I could sense he really wanted to see how Kiwi would look on Lyoko for real, now more than ever.

Speaking of all things good, it wasn’t long after, that _mi novio’s_ diggity-dog let out a yawn and opened his eyes. “Okay, Odd, Master… what did you tell Cassidy this time?” he asked groggily.

“Remember the time I tried to take you to Lyoko, but you jumped into Cassidy’s scanner, just as Einstein was virtualizing her?” Odd asked, turning his head in the winged canine’s direction.

Kiwi cocked his head, making the same questioning noise he made when the others forced him to stay at the factory for two days.

“Well, now I know what you’ll look like if Jeremie actually sends you to Lyoko!” The ninja-cat boy’s smile grew wider, the more he went on. “You’ll be a big warrior, walking on your hind paws, wearing purple and pink armor, and you’ll carry a spear! You even took out a Tarantula, after deflecting its shots a few times!”

Then it was _his_ turn. He flipped onto his back, wings wide-spread, and started laughing, making movements akin to scratching his back on some grass. This, in reply, made me cackle harder.

While the two of us laughed our heads off, we soon heard the gentle sounds of two more of our friends returning to the waking world, with a short interval between the two of them. Aelita was the first to open her eyes, letting out a gentle, cute-sounding yawn as she slowly sat up. A few seconds later, Yumi slowly rose from her sleep, uttering a similar sound as she leaned her back up against the backboard of her bed.

“Good morning, Cassidy,” Aelita greeted warmly, as she smiled at me. “Sounds like you had a wonderful dream, and slept very well last night.”

“More than that, Princess,” Odd corrected boastfully. “I had a nice dream last night, too. I told it to her and Kiwi, and they’re eating out of my hand!”

Yumi chuckled a bit in reply, as she watched the way Kiwi and I shook, as we rolled around on my bed. “And that surprises you, Odd?”

“No!” he shouted happily. “It’s great to see her laughing, especially since she hasn’t woken up laughing enough.”

As we continued, the gentle, soothing sound of Sister letting out a yawn as she awakened filled our ears, before the girl in question gently sat up and rubbed her eyes. Looking over at us, she started to get a bit curious about all of the laughter between myself and Kiwi.

“Huh?” she commented, slightly confused. “Did my dear sister have a funny dream, last night?”

“Don’t worry, Sissi. Odd just told her about a dream he had, and it seems to agree with her,” Aelita smiled.

As soon as she said that, Kiwi took a deep breath, calming his fit. “Odd, Master, you are funny!”

In reply, I copied his motion, feeling it cool myself down. “That’s my boyfriend.”

I then felt the warm, comforting arms of my dear sister gently surround me, as the girl in question pulled me into a snuggle.

“Oh, I’m so glad you had a wonderful dream last night, dear sister!” she commented, excitement in her voice. “I love it when my sister wakes up laughing!”

“All happy memories, Sister,” I confirmed, a huge grin on my face. “Thanks to you and Aelita.”

“Don’t mention it!” Sister replied, slowly freeing me from her embrace. “I knew we’d make sure you got all the sleep you needed. Think of it as your beauty rest, my dear darling sister. I think you deserved it.”

“What’s more,” Aelita added, smiling as she watched the scene, “from the way you were laughing when I woke up, you must’ve had a much better night than you did last night.”

My cheeks heated up happily. “It was definitely better than the other night, Aelita. And I’m glad you ended up having _your_ own beauty sleep, too, Sister.”

“Thanks,” the principal’s daughter grinned. “That spa day really paid off.”

“Yeah.”

“My money’s on the water,” Odd quipped, as he began to wonder if any one thing, in particular, had made me so happy. “Either that or the coconut milk. You got washed enough times yesterday, Cat Girl… maybe they washed the bad dreams off of you?”

“It could be. I dreamt about all the good memories I had with you all, and it definitely gave me a boost,” I smiled, reeling him in for a hug, and our morning kiss.

 _Mi novio_ couldn’t help but laugh as he felt me wrap my arms around him, hugging and kissing him as we usually did, with him doing each back to me, very soon after. “Maybe I should’ve gotten a bath, too… imagine what it would’ve done to me!”

“I’d guess you’d be very relaxed, _novio_.”

Yumi let out a bit of a chuckle at that thought. “Odd? Relaxed? Are we talking about the same Odd Della Robbia here?”

I opened the nightstand drawer, grabbing the hairbrush that the spa officials gave me. “Well, he was when we went to that one spa, Yumi. He just snapped out of it quicker on the way back to Kadic.”

As I went to bring the brush up to the top of my head, I felt a hand gently come to rest on my left shoulder. Looking over, I saw Aelita was smiling at me, with a curious look on her face.

“Why don’t you let me brush your hair, Cassidy?” she asked politely, with a slight air of assertiveness, and her right hand stretched out in front of my chest as if she was waiting for me to put the hairbrush into it.

I smiled and gently let it land into her hand. “Sure, Aelita…”

The brush in her possession, she then stepped behind me and began to lightly brush my long, brown hair in a very relaxing way, keeping a calm smile on her face as she watched her progress. I actually found it really relaxing; a bit too relaxing, as I felt purrs escape my lips, something that both aggravated me, and calmed me at the same time. But Aelita knew I was really enjoying what she was doing, and as she tamed the locks that fell from my head, I could hear her soft giggles waft into my ears every so often.

“Wow, and I thought petting her hair was the only way to make her purr,” Odd quipped, a massive grin on his face.

“It’s anything, really,” my former first roommate explained, turning to look at _mi novio_ as she continued brushing my hair. “Any soft, gentle rubs of her head make her do that.”

“It’s only when I get hit on the head is when I get a bit cross,” I smiled. “Like when Theo accidentally hit me with a javelin in Phys. Ed. I almost chased him across the courtyard when I stopped and passed out.”

“He had the aim of a Hornet!” Odd chuckled, remembering that day nearly as well as I did. “You should’ve heard Jim yelling at him! ‘Left, not right!’ ‘You’re supposed to throw it into the air, _not_ onto the ground! I don’t care if you think you’re gonna hit a birdy or some carrier pigeon…’ ‘Gauthier! Have you gone mad?! McGuire is not a piñata!’”

Of course, while Odd was making himself laugh with the silly things that happened that day, Sister was a bit more concerned about something else.

“You passed out?” she raised an eyebrow, looking worried. “You didn’t _overdessert_ yourself, did you, dear sister?”

“It was after the class, and the term is overexert. No, my pain started to win out. It ended up with me almost about to unleash Tamaranean insults if it didn’t. Luckily, it was gone by the next day, Sister,” I reassured.

Sister breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s a relief. If that stupid kid couldn’t aim correctly, then he had no business trying to throw a javelin! Imagine who else he could’ve hit, besides you!”

“It’s okay, Sissi,” Yumi spoke up, walking over to intervene as she placed her hands on Sister’s shoulders. “It’s in the past, now. Cassidy’s just fine, and whatever happened to her because of that is long gone, too. Besides, I’m sure Theo’s a much better javelin thrower by now, anyway.”

“Yep,” I confirmed. “He is. It was just a bit of a surprise when I was about to practice my running, only to get conked on the head with something wooden. Moving on, I’m glad that we had that spa day. It really combed out the knots.”

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

“You know, I could get used to something like that,” Odd commented, walking over to the dresser that the spa’s flyer sat upon, and picking it up. “What if we did that every week? Or even every day?”

My eyes widened when he said “every week/every day.” “Uh...you me-mean in France, right? Not going through something like this again?” I squeaked.

He raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised at me. “Well, yeah, Cat Girl. I mean, we’ll soon have XANA to worry about again, and who says heroes like us don’t deserve the four R’s, more often than just once or twice a month? Of course, I don’t mean something like this… not even XANA would do something this weird.”

“R-r-right…” I nodded, trembling, worried that he meant kidnapping, as well.

I soon felt his loving, caring arms surround me, as he walked up behind me.

 “No, Cat Girl…” he soothed, as he embraced me warmly. “I don’t mean it like that… I would never want this to happen to you, or anyone of us ever again. This was bad enough the first time! Just relax, Cat Girl… it’s okay.”

A fresh intake of air filled my lungs, calming my senses as a smile flitted onto my face. “Thanks, Odd…”

“Don’t mention it,” he cooed happily, before giving me a soft kiss on the side of my forehead, not wanting to let go of me, just yet. Seeing this, Aelita let out a cute little giggle, as she continued to gently brush my hair.

“That does sound like a wonderful idea, though,” she agreed in her usual calm, soothing voice. “But we wouldn’t want to fall into a stale routine.”

“You’re right,” Sister nodded. “It’d just be more for our downtime. The more relaxed we are, the more refreshed and recharged we are, the better we can take on XANA and his monsters, whenever he strikes!”

“Yeah, especially since he’s been unusually silent since the start,” I blinked.

That knocked a bit of the wind out of Aelita’s sails, even though you couldn’t tell without looking at her. “You’re right… and that’s what Jeremie and I are the most worried about. We thought he certainly would have launched at least one attack by now, even if it’s just like the ball of electricity you, Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Sissi faced.”

“Even when I talked to your father, XANA hasn’t even attacked him or anyone else around the campus. It’s totally weird, Aelita, I have to admit,” I kept myself from nodding, not wanting to interrupt her work.

“I just hope he’s not planning something big…” Her voice lowered in pitch a tiny bit, as her fear started to mount.

Deciding to interrupt her motions, I whirled around in Odd’s grip and wrapped my arms around her. “If he is, we’re stronger than that.”

“I’m really rubbing off on you, aren’t I?” _Mi novio_ chuckled, as he brought his arms around, and softly caressed my sides, through my nightshirt. “It’s like I said before, if the third time’s the charm, then the fourth time’s gotta be even better!”

“Welcome to Lyoko, Odd,” I giggled a little.

That slowly brought a smile to my former first roommate’s face. “You’re right. After all, we’ve been strong enough to really weaken him before, haven’t we?”

“Right. Besides, I’m sure we’ll start to fight him again, soon,” Yumi nodded.

“Hopefully that ghost thing doesn’t attack me,” Kiwi woofed.

Finally releasing me from his warm, loving embrace, Odd bent down to Kiwi’s level and began gently stroking the winged dog’s back. “Don’t worry, my little winged diggity-dog. Once you go to Lyoko, you’ll never have to worry about XANA trying to get you ever again. Besides, you’re the only one who can see XANA’s specters in the first place, anyway!”

He let out a chuckle, as he looked down at his hands, which softly moved backward across Kiwi’s back, before he lifted it up, and placed it behind his head, once more. It was while he did this, that he suddenly noticed something incredibly strange, that not only froze his hands in place but also caused his usual, carefree grin to suddenly vanish.

“Huh?!”

“What is it, Odd?” I asked, letting Aelita go.

He gritted his teeth in fear, as he slowly turned his head around to look at me. “Uh, Cat Girl… remember how we thought all the surprises from the School were gone? Well… you’re really not gonna like this…”

“I’m used to the fact that I now possess a pink strand of hair on my head, and only there, fortunately,” I blinked as a smile graced my features. “Plus everyone can read minds, Yumi’s got telekinesis, and Sister’s got emotional healing powers. Just tell me, _Novio_.”

Even though he saw me smile, Odd still wasn’t convinced, but he knew I was waiting for it, so he didn’t have very many choices.

“Uh—that’s great…” Uneasy, he turned his head back to face Kiwi, “...but, uh… would you be used to the fact that my diggity-dog looks more and more like me, every day?”

“He already knows we’re svelte, Odd,” I giggled. “I’m sure it’s not a big deal.”

Odd was surprised; I still wasn’t getting it. So, as much as he was afraid of how I was going to react, he was going to have to break it to me.

“Yeah… maybe you’re right,” he started to reply, almost nonchalantly, before gently picking up his winged pet dog with both hands, and turning him around to face me. “I mean, it probably isn’t that big of a deal that my diggity-dog has a stripe of purple fur on his back, like how I have a purple diamond in my hair.”

I looked at his back, eyes widening in intrigue. He wasn’t kidding; there, inches from the collar around his neck, between his two gray-colored wings, was a stripe. A purple stripe that looked almost natural, the way it contrasted with his gray fur. It was kinda long, too; it traveled from the spot between his shoulders, down toward the place between his legs, stopping inches before his body rounded down toward his butt and tail.

“Oh, wow…” I blinked at it a couple times, brushing the strand of pink hair behind my ear. “I’ll be darned. Looks like Jeb was right when he said that Kiwi’s definitely yours, Odd.”

 _Mi novio_ had finally reached the point where he was dumbfounded. Not only was I nearly indifferent to the idea, but I had also looked at it, and not gone completely bonkers. Had something happened to me, or had I become so desensitized to everything that was going on around me?

“But… but… but…” Odd squeaked out, his eyebrows twitching in surprise.

“Don’t worry, Odd,” Aelita soothed, placing her hand on my wildcard’s shoulder, stopping him. “With everything else that’s happened, she’s probably just used to things by now.”

“I guess I am,” I sighed. “I just don’t feel as freaked out as I was before, even though you think I should.”

Hearing this, his eyes widened, and he quickly started waving his arms in front of his chest. “No! No! I don’t mean that! I mean… I was, uh… you’re, uh… uh… no! It’s great that you’re not… surprised anymore. I was, uh… oh, never mind…”

“I’ll tell you what it means,” Sister jumped in, grinning at me. “It means my darling sister is getting stronger! These things don’t bug her anymore!”

“Either that or the spa day really kicked my emotions into relaxation. It’s win-win,” I smiled.

“And that’s good news either way,” Yumi agreed, smiling with her eyes closed.

After about half an hour, the others had awakened, and soon everyone had joined us in our suite and gotten their own breakfast. Their meal, just like ours, was terrific, as it had been the previous day; the only melancholy was the thought that the food might not be this good for a while, or at least until we reached our next destination. We sat around and talked for a good hour or so, as everyone finished their breakfast, before we began packing up our belongings, ready to pile back into the van and continue our journey. Before we left, Georgina did a sweep of each suite to make sure we didn’t forget anything. She picked up an accidentally-dropped pony or two that I had, and several sheaths of paper from Hunter, Ulrich, and Jeremie’s suite—how they managed to make notes, to her, was a profound mystery. Then she, along with Jeb, gathered all our room keys and took them to the front desk.

While we compiled into the van and into the seats we chose, Max relayed several instructions to her flock, making sure that everyone knew what to do. Soon they unfurled their wings and took to the sky, to provide our aerial protection.

Jeb slid into his seat. “Okay, guys. Next part of the trip. Going up to Denver, so we’re still in the same time zone for the moment.”

“Not bad,” William was the first to reply, with a somewhat-excited grin on his face. “Have we got any plans for up there?”

“We’ll stay for a night before heading to North Platte,” he smiled.

“I wonder if our next hotel will have a gym?” Patrick asked, curiously, before looking over at Ulrich and Yumi. “I’ve wanted to practice my Aikido, and you guys could show me some Pencak Silat.”

“It does, Patrick,” Georgina smiled.

“Great idea!” Yumi nodded with a grin. “Maybe we could all spar together.”

“I’d like to see that, too, Patrick,” Ulrich commented, his expression nearly copying his girlfriend’s. “Maybe we could teach each other a few moves.”

“That’d be great!” Patrick replied, looking slightly excited at the whole thing.

“I’d love to listen to music,” I smiled, “in my suite.”

“I think I’ll listen to music in mine, too!” Sister agreed, grinning at me.

“That’s good. I think you also bought a new Discman at Walmart, didn’t you?”

“That’s right!” She closed her eyes as her grin increased, out of excitement. “I haven’t even taken it out of the box, yet! It’s still in its bag, in the back, with the rest of my things.”

“I… I don’t know what I wanna do, just yet,” Hunter spoke up, looking up at the ceiling of the van. “I haven’t even thought that far ahead, just yet.”

“It’s okay, Hunter, sweetie. Just take a deep breath.”

He did as he was told, exhaling a few seconds later. “If this next hotel is anything like the one we’re just leaving, there’ll probably be so many things to do, I won’t know what to do. Or it might be even bigger. So I’ll probably just make it up as I go along.”

“That’s what Odd does every day,” Ulrich quipped.

“Better believe it!” Odd agreed, donning an ambitious grin as he chuckled. “We can’t all have our days planned out like you, good buddy.”

“And I wouldn’t have Odd any other way,” I smiled, snuggling him.

He chuckled more as he returned my snuggle. “And where would I be, without my darling, lovable Cat Girl?”

“Possibly…hm…” I couldn’t quite think of anything.

Aelita couldn’t help but giggle at my loss for words. “The only thing that matters is that you two make a wonderful couple.”

“Well, you and Jeremie are the cutest!” Kaitlyn smiled.

That tinted hers and Jeremie’s cheeks a bit, as Aelita continued to grin, while Jeremie looked a bit bashful.

“Oh, knock it off, Kaitlyn,” he remarked, somewhat jokingly.

“Is my cousin getting a bit hot under the collar?” she teased.

His blush increased, which started Aelita and me giggling. “W-whatever would give you t-that idea?”

“The blush says it all, cuz,” Patrick jumped in.

“Y-you think I’m blushing about that?” Jeremie started looking around, almost as if he was grasping at straws. “I-I-It’s just really hot in here, that’s all. And we’re in New Mexico, and we can’t open the side windows, so—”

His cover-up attempt came to a screeching halt when he felt his darling pink-haired princess press her lips against his own, petrifying him in his seat. Aelita then slowly pulled her head away from him, smiling warmly, before her expression turned mischievous.

“I think that says it all, doesn’t it?” she quipped, winking cutely—I swore I heard a ding—as she giggled a bit. The entire van erupted into laughter, save Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, who had no idea what we were even doing.

“I’m sure that he needed a kiss from his lover this morning,” I chortled.

“But then, won’t he need another one tonight?” Odd jumped in next, still chuckling. “It’ll help him stay in bed, so he doesn’t get up to check his computer!”

Of course, his joke didn’t go as well as expected, as it calmed me right down, and pulled me into feelings of fear and concern. “Then who will watch for XANA, Odd? Do you want the world to be destroyed?!”

Yumi blinked, turning her own look of concern my way. “Cassidy, calm down. I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that. He was only joking. He doesn’t want the world to be destroyed, any more than you or I do.”

I took in a deep breath, letting it calm me down. “Right… I guess it hit me the wrong way. Sorry…”

Odd reached over and softly rubbed my back, between my wings. “Relax, Cat Girl… you know I didn’t mean it like that. I was just trying to be funny.”

“I think we all should relax,” Yumi suggested, her look of concern replaced with a warm, calming smile. “Let’s try to have a little fun on our way to Denver. It’s probably going to be a long ride, just like our first one was.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I smiled, relaxing.

To aid in this, Sister leaned over and pulled me into a warm snuggle, calming me even further. With her left arm, she then pulled Odd into the hug, spreading the feeling of calmness in his direction. I could hear him relax, as he gently laid his head upon my shoulder, the tip of his hair missing the back of my neck by inches.

“This feels very nice…” I sighed happily.

“You’re totally right, Cat Girl…” Odd replied, also sounding quite relaxed, as well. “Can I fall asleep on your shoulder?”

“Didn’t stop you from falling asleep in Mrs. Mayer’s class one time,” I giggled slightly. “Go ahead.”

He chuckled a bit, as he rubbed my back a bit more. “I’m just kidding, Cat Girl. I just love the warm hug as much as you.”

I giggled. “Me, too, Odd.”

With a couple soft rubs of each of our sides, Sister gently broke the hug and leaned back into her usual spot.

“There! That’s what I like to see!” she commented, smiling half-excitedly. “My dearest sister and her wonderful boyfriend, all nice and relaxed!”

“You’re right, Sissi,” Yumi agreed.

Ulrich smiled. “I always knew you had it in you, Sissi.”

Sister bashfully deflected the compliments, something I knew she would have never done, had she stayed stuck in her snobbish ways. “Oh, Ulrich dear, I’m just here to keep everyone nice and relaxed, and happy, too. I’ve been told I’m a good hugger.”

I nodded, giggling. “She’s right.”

Then my giggling stopped, as I suddenly remembered something else. “By the way, please don’t freak out heavily, but Kiwi started growing a purple stripe between his wings leading up to his tail.”

“Wha…?!” came the surprised call of Ulrich, Hunter, Patrick, Kaitlyn, William, and Sam, in varying pitches and levels, with smaller outbursts coming from Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, up front. Even Jeremie came out of his Aelita-induced paralysis instantly, the look of surprise his face previously held returning.

Kiwi got up and sat next to a window, showing the stripe in all its purple glory. “Never knew it happened,” he smiled.

It took Ulrich a few seconds to fully comprehend the scene.

“Well, whaddya know,” he remarked, amazed, before turning his gaze on his former roommate. “Well, Odd, now you don’t need to put your address on there if you ever lose Kiwi. Just write, ‘look for the guy who has a spot in his hair that’s the same color as my stripe!’”

“I’m sure I can find my way back to Lyoko HQ on my own, Ulrich… as soon as the Eraser stench fades away,” _mi novio’s_ diggity dog woofed.

“Don’t worry, my little diggity-dog,” Odd jumped in, gently stroking the winged canine’s fur. “When we get to our next hotel, I’ll make sure you get all the steamed, organic vegetables you can eat! That oughta clear your nose right up!”

He wagged his tail. “True, or maybe some of the hotel’s kibble. The food the hotel had really agreed with me.”

“Well, the fancier the hotel,” Patrick suggested, thinking of the food he and the rest of us ate at the one we had recently left, “the better the food must be. Maybe that’s the reason?”

“It must be,” Jeremie jumped in. “I can’t even remember the last time I had food that nearly melted in my mouth. Every bite, from the first to the last, was a pure work of culinary art. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone like Emeril Lagasse was the head chef.”

“Since when have you been the food connoisseur, Einstein?” Odd teased.

“When all you have to eat is Rosa’s cuisine, day in and day out,” the blond genius started to explain, “you tend to immediately notice a difference, especially when you’re given food from somebody else.”

“Yep,” I smiled, my mouth starting to salivate. “The pork chops last night… ooh… They were so delicious and mouth-watery… It makes me think they took tips from a Texas Roadhouse. It was perfection…” My tongue went back and forth across my lips.

“Be careful that that ‘perfection’ doesn’t get all over your clothes,” Aelita commented, giggling softly and cutely as she reached over to gently wipe my mouth with a spare napkin she saved the night before.

“You’re right,” I chuckled, finally able to reel in my saliva. “I just couldn’t help it.”

“Don’t worry,” Jeb commented, adding a slight chuckle of his own while not moving his eyes from the road in front of them. “When we get to the hotel in Denver, I’ll bet you the food is going to be even better. It’s a much bigger hotel, after all. It’s got bigger rooms and suites, too.”

“But!” Sister came in, “Just like last night, dear sister, you’re not sleeping alone!”

That struck a chord within Kaitlyn, who got a bit curious, and suspicious. “Wait… did something happen to Cassidy? She didn’t try to do something stupid, did she?”

“Oh, no, it was nothing like that,” Yumi soothed, with a warm, calming smile, making sure she wasn’t forcing her words out. “The truth is, well… Hunter wasn’t the one who had the nightmare, two nights ago… Cassidy did.”

“Wait, _what?!_ ” Kaitlyn shrieked. “Cassidy, why the hell didn’t you tell me when you had it?! I could have helped, too!”

“Uh…” That really got me, and it made perfect sense, too. “I—” I hung my head, feeling uncomfortable and guilty.

On the other hand, I could feel a weight being lifted off from Hunter’s shoulders and psyche, even though he still looked quite concerned. “We really should have told you, sooner. In fact, I’m not even sure why they did it that way. I honestly kind of surprised myself; I’m terrible at ad-libbing, most of the time.”

So then it was Jeremie’s turn, and he was a bit sheepish about it, too. “Well, you see Kaitlyn, uh… when Cassidy had that dream, she was pretty terrified about it… she was worried that somebody was going to judge her for it… and it was also a bit of a personal issue. When she asked us where Hunter was, we were all kinda freaked out by it, so we thought of how he was still sleeping in at that time… and since you hadn’t seen who had the nightmare… we thought we’d say it was him. We were afraid you might get angry at Cassidy for berating herself again, and because Hunter is the only one any of us barely know, there was less of a chance of you getting angry at him, we thought. But Hunter’s right; we shouldn’t have just speculated. We should have come right out and told you.”

“I’m sorry, Kaitlyn… and I’m sorry, Hunter…” I whimpered, bracing for impact, waiting for them to throw me under the proverbial bus.

But I had been known to worry too much…

Instead of words being flung at me, angry yelling, or even actually throwing me out the side door, Hunter instead wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a warm hug.

“I know I’m not as gentle and soothing as Sissi is,” he commented, trying to lighten the mood a bit, “but I forgive you. You had to do what you had to do; I’m just glad I could hold up my end of the deal.”

“Kaitlyn?”

She had a slight look of anger on her face, still upset over how we handled the situation at first, but as she watched Hunter hug me, and how I was acting about the entire thing, it softened her up.

“No…” she replied, calming down. “I’m not mad at you, either. I just wish you would have told me what was going on. Hopefully, you will, next time.”

“Totally, Kaitlyn,” I smiled.

Jeremie let out a slight sigh of relief, glad that everything had been sorted out. “Great. We’re all friends again. We’re definitely not gonna do that again unless we know that someone really _won’t_ like that.”

“Yep,” Kiwi yipped, lifting a hind leg to itch at his ear. “I got a bit worried, Einstein. ’didn’t know what the outcome would be.”

“I’m sure they would’ve gotten over it sooner or later,” Odd reassured his winged diggity-dog, softly stroking his head. “They’ve known each other for a while. They’re better than that.”

“Kaitlyn does sometimes hold grudges for a while,” Jeremie jumped in, feeling the need to fill Odd in, even though it would probably make things worse, “and when she’s angry, she tends to get really angry.”

“Well, I only have a small list of people I really hate, cuz,” Kaitlyn smiled. “For a small time, Sissi was on it, but then the monster happened, and she really changed for the better.”

“You had every right to be that way,” Sister lamented, realizing exactly why Kaitlyn had mentioned that. “I was really mean to you, before. But I would never, ever act like that toward you, or anyone else, ever again.”

“You have acted so much better, Sister, ever since I woke from my coma,” I giggled, snuggling Hunter once before his arms retracted. Then I wrapped my arms around her.

Sister started to giggle happily, especially as I did that. She eagerly returned the warm hug, glad to know what I had thought of her complete turnaround in personality.

As we giggled, I heard Odd start chuckling as well, making an abstract picture frame with the index fingers and thumbs on each of his hands. “Oh, that’s so beautiful!”

“Oh, Odd, I wouldn’t dare forget about you!” I laughed as I reeled him in for another Sister-Cassidy-Odd group hug.

His chuckles continued as he wrapped his arms around the two of us, enjoying the hug as much as we were.

Meanwhile, up front, Jeb slowly turned his head around to see what all the giggling was about. “Having fun, you three?”

“Yeah. We’re fine,” I smiled.

“That’s great!” Georgina replied, adding a few giggles of her own. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

“Me, too.”

We spent most of the ride chatting about nearly anything, reminiscing about old times, looking out the window, and playing silly games together (one of which was I Spy, a game Jeremie was a bit too good at). After a short stop at a gas station, to refuel the van, stretch our legs and buy a few snacks and drinks, we were back on the highway and charging headlong toward the New Mexico/Colorado border.

Why can’t these things go off without a hitch?

It was while we were on the highway, going down a road that would lead us straight into Durango, Colorado, when we saw Max suddenly point to an exit leading to a city called Los Alamos. Georgina, without a second thought, took the exit and began to slow the van as it cruised down the off-ramp.

Max had a chance to fly down toward the passenger side window, which Jeb rolled down, curious to hear what was going on.

“What’s going on, Max?” I asked her.

“An unmarked black sedan was following us after we hit Truth or Consequences, New Mexico,” she answered. “Our raptor vision indicated that there were some whitecoats and Erasers in it.”

Yumi groaned. “Just when we thought we could get away from them! What did they do, track us?!”

“This can’t be good,” I blinked, trying to mask my fear.

“Don’t panic. Get down and stay down. We’ll handle things from here,” the leader of the flock soothed.

Before she flew away, as the others quickly laid down in their seats, well underneath the windows on the sides of the van, I looked into her eyes one last time, where I saw a very calming gaze. It was almost as if she somehow knew how freaked out I was about this entire event, and she wanted to calm me the best way she could before she left to try and tackle the problem with her flock.

Of course, my stare was broken when I felt Odd grab my arm, and gently pull me down. “Get down, Cat Girl!”

For a good fifteen minutes or so, everything seemed to be incredibly tense, as nobody was quite sure what was going on. We could occasionally hear sounds of fighting in the background, but this faded away as we felt the van come to a stop, and make different turns. Then everything seemed quiet as Georgina continued to drive. We could hear cars in the other lane driving by as we passed them, but other than that, everything seemed normal. We only hoped we were right.

About ten minutes after that, we passed a gigantic “Welcome to Durango, Colorado” sign, even though none of us could see it.

 _Why is this happening to us now?_ I asked, rubbing a strand of my hair in an attempt to keep myself from shaking. _We were doing so well!_

 _We should be fine, Cassidy,_ I heard Yumi reply in my mind. _Max and her flock should be handling it. I’m sure we’ll be okay when we get to Denver._

_I hope so. This is so scary at the moment. I don’t know what to do._

_We’re not gonna get anywhere if we keep thinking like that._ Ulrich’s thoughts echoed in my mind, next. _Max and her flock have the whole thing under control. All we have to do is wait until we reach Denver. They can’t get us there. It’s not like Max, Gasman, or Iggy are gonna let us down. Let’s let them handle it. They’ve done this sort of thing before. It’s not like they’re gonna let them get us._

My nerves revved up a tiny bit, as I trembled. But just as soon as it came on, a soothing, calming voice entered my mind, which I knew could only have come from one person.

 _We’re going to make it. I know we will._ It was Aelita. _I have faith in Max and her flock._

 _I do, too… But I don’t wanna go back to The School, Aelita…_ I struggled to breathe.

 _Y-y-you_ _d-don’t really think we’re… going to… do you?_ Hunter’s voice rang through my mind next, sounding nearly as freaked out as I was.

 _No! They can’t do that! They can’t take us back!_ Sam was also showing how worried she was about the entire situation.

 _I don’t want to see Reilly again!_ I exclaimed, whimpering from my throat. _O-or Mandy…!_

That’s when Einstein felt he had to calm all three of us, in his own way. _None of us are going back to The School, okay? We won’t have to worry about Reilly, or Mandy, or any of the whitecoats. Max and her flock are going to take care of them. Should any of them fail, which I find very highly unlikely, they might need our help to wipe out the rest of them, but we should be okay. We’re gonna find a way to keep from going back for good!_

Strangely enough, this didn’t help me calm down, either. Then again, Jeremie was rarely the type to give pep talks that actually soothed you, anyway. Now, all I could think about was the possibility that Reilly, Mandy, and the other whitecoats and Erasers would somehow overpower Max and her flock, and they’d have to rely on us to finish the job. That thought alone made my heart start racing a thousand miles an hour. _What?! We’re not ready for this!_

 _What if Max and her flock weaken them for us?_ Odd tried to calm me to some extent. _It’s not like they’re gonna be at full strength the whole time… maybe all we’ll need to do is just slap them, and they’ll fall right over like bowling pins!_

 _But **we** might become the pins!_ Now my breathing was starting to hitch. It was apparent from that point; Reilly, Mandy, and the others had somehow increased their power so they would blow through Max and her flock like they were a stack of playing cards arranged in a pyramid. I also knew they wouldn’t stop there; it’d be syringes of sedative all around, and before any of us could react, our necks would all get stung. And that’s not even counting what would happen to Jeb, Ari, and Georgina, for helping us escape! It was all over! Where was my paper bag?!

 _Odd, you’re not helping!_ I heard Yumi gently chastise Odd for sending me over the edge, mentally. _We all just need to stay calm! Thinking about the bad stuff isn’t going to make any of us feel better!_

And then William threw his virtual hat into the ring. _Hey, let’s all try to keep calm. No need to start throwing guitars against the mental walls, okay?_

 _Yeah, you’re right,_ I heard _mi novio_ reply, with a sigh in his mind. _And I’m sorry, Cat Girl. I was just trying to make you feel better. I didn’t think it was gonna make you feel worse. You, Sam, or Hunter._

I clung to him, whimpering out loud.

 _I’m really scared, too,_ I heard Sister’s thoughts echo in my mind, _but I’m trying not to let it bother me. If I freak out, they win. We have to stay strong. For all of us, not just for Max and her flock._

Man, I really wished I could have done that. The only problem was, my mind just wanted to focus on all the negatives, and the worst-case scenario. Eventually, I just devolved into a shaking, sobbing mess, as Odd snuggled me close to him.

 _Y-you’re… right…_ Hunter’s thoughts bounced around, _but… i-i-i-it’s… really… hard… I feel like they’ve… brought out their big guns… what if Max and her flock… really **can’t** handle them…?_

And that didn’t help me, either… but what was he going to do? He was probably nearly as afraid as I was… probably as fearful as Sam was, as well… the others might have been putting up a front, but they had to be scared, too. XANA had never done anything of this caliber, from what I remember.

That was when Jeb happened to look back, overhearing only the noises we were making, utterly oblivious to the fact that the twelve of us were having a conversation in our minds. And to him, I didn’t look very good at all. He was starting to wonder if empathy was wreaking havoc on my emotions, just like it had done, when Hunter had that terrible meltdown, back at The School.

“Cassidy?” he whispered. “Are you okay?”

Yumi looked up at Jeb, with a somber look on her face. “She’s really freaked out. We’re all worried, but she’s really taking it the hardest, out of all of us,” she whispered.

“She’s had the worst scientist assigned to her, and went through the most grueling of the tests,” Jeb theorized carefully, fearing certain words might make me even worse than I already was.

I shook in Odd’s grip, my being going against me. Jeb grimaced as he saw me, his own empathy starting to take over, before slowly leaning forward, and softly rubbing my back, between my wings and through my shirt.

“Hey, Cassidy,” he tried to comfort me, in the most soothing coo he could muster, “it’s me, Jeb. Can you take a deep breath for me? Nothing bad is gonna happen to you. We’re gonna make sure those scientists and Erasers don’t come anywhere near you.”

I struggled to breathe. This was crazy. I tried my hardest to regain control of myself, even to just make some sort of sign to Jeb, but it wasn’t working. It was like my spirit was chained to one end of my brain, or whatever technical way Einstein would have used to explain what was going on inside me.

“It’s okay, kiddo,” he soothed, turning his attention to _mi novio_. “Try talking to her, Odd. She’s really close to you. Maybe you’ll help her relax more than I will.”

Nodding, Odd turned his attention to me, cooing softly as he began to gently stroke my sides, through my clothes. “We’re all here, Cat Girl. All you gotta do is breathe for us, okay? Whatever those big, bad whitecoats are gonna do, we’re gonna beat ’em back. They’re not gonna win, okay? We are. C’mon, Cat Girl the Magnificent…”

I kept trying to make my lungs obey me, but they wouldn’t. Odd should have known that those kinds of pep talks didn’t work on me, especially when he and Jeb were the only things stopping me from curling up into the fetal position, and trembling so hard. What did he mean, “we’re gonna beat ’em back”? The Erasers were stronger than we were, and Yumi and I knew it. This was not gonna end well.

Looking at my face, Jeb could clearly tell none of this was working, much to his disdain. There was one other thing he could do, and while he really didn’t want to do it, because he knew we had had enough of it back at The School, it was looking more and more like that was his only option.

Leaning forward, and reaching into a zip-up bag that was placed between the driver’s and passenger’s seats, Jeb withdrew a syringe. “I really hate to do this to her, after everything you all have gone through, but this seems like the only way to get her to relax,” he lamented, sounding a bit somber.

“What?!” Yumi and Ulrich exclaimed together.

“I won’t use what they did to all of you, okay?” he added, keeping his voice calm as he leaned toward me, once more. “This’ll probably get her through to our next rest stop, and she should be just fine after that.”

Ulrich shook his head in resignation, sighing deeply as he closed his eyes. “She’s gonna hate us for this…”

“It’ll be okay, dear sister,” Sister soothed, still trying to talk to me.

Jeb gently took my arm, while holding the syringe firmly with his other hand. “I’m not gonna inject it into her neck. It’ll be much easier to use her arm. And if she gets angry at us, I’ll explain it to her. I’ll tell her you had no control over it, and I just did it to get her to stop.”

And with that, he slid it into my arm, knowing I would probably react from the slight prick, before injecting the entire sedative into my bloodstream. Between the feeling of fire in my veins and the struggle to regain control of myself, I felt every inch of me slowly shut down, before I finally collapsed into _mi novio’s_ chest, as he snuggled me close to him. He didn’t like the idea any more than the rest of them did, but it worked.

\---

The crawl to consciousness was not nearly as fast as everyone had hoped. Sure, I was out for a reasonable period of time, but when Jeb suggested that I’d only be out for a couple of hours, and possibly just until they got to a rest stop… would you believe I was actually out for longer than that?

“Cassidy? Are you okay now?” Aelita asked, moments before my eyes cracked open.

“Uh… Theo looks hideous in a really tall hat,” I murmured.

Sister struggled to keep a straight face, especially as the others started laughing, but found it harder and harder. “He, uh… only looks terrible in, uh… brown hats...” Soon even this became too much of a challenge for her, as her teeth gritted in a wide grin, before being forcefully separated as she squealed in chuckles, something everyone found contagious.

Once the laughter died down, something I didn’t feel terrible about, as I was still somewhat groggy, I looked out the window, trying to see if I could figure out where we were, just by looking at the tops of buildings. When that didn’t work, I turned my attention toward the roof of the van.

“Does… anybody know where we are?” I asked with half-awake curiosity.

“According to my map, we are in Aspen, Colorado, Cassidy,” Jeremie answered.

“Must’ve been some trip,” I blinked, still slightly out-of-it.

“It sure was for those whitecoats and Erasers,” Odd replied, getting a bit of a grin on his face. “Max and her flock flew back and took care of that unmarked sedan that was following us, earlier. She says we’re safe now.”

“Yeah, but you oughta stay lying down, for now, Cass,” William added, referring to my half-asleep state. “You can sit up when you’re more with it.”

“Yeah, being sedated must’ve helped,” I sighed, snuggling Odd’s belly. “At least it was a controlled thingie…”

“Controlled thingie…?” Jeremie raised an eyebrow, wondering if I was still mumbling, or what.

“She must mean controlled sedation,” Jeb explained. “Cassidy’s probably not too angry at us like I once feared.”

“How can I be angry at you, Jeb? We’re still on the course to Denver,” I muttered, a smile slowly growing on my face. “Besides, it’s like what Odd says, ‘When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.’ It was only borrowed once by Samurai, and I will never be an astronaut.”

Odd chuckled at that. He knew I was totally his girl, especially with little reminders like that. “You’re waking up even faster than I thought, Cat Girl!”

“I guess I am,” I blinked.

“Good!” Kiwi woofed, wiggling so he could sit in my lap. “I’d love to give you a belly rub, just in case.”

Yumi chuckled a bit, as she stroked the dog’s back, between his wings. “I think she’s calm enough on her own, Kiwi. But I’m sure she’d love a belly rub another time.”

He wagged his tail happily. “Okay, but at the hotel room.”

Aelita giggled at this, hovering her hand over her mouth as she and Hunter began to wonder what it would feel like, to have a dog softly rub their bellies or their backs. Hunter also thought about other places, like sides, arms, shoulders, and things like that. Kiwi’s paw pads were undoubtedly soft, so maybe it would be interesting to find out one day.

Feeling a little snackish, I stretched a bit, before finding to my mock horror that my popcorn bag had gone missing. “Odd… honey… did you eat my snack I bought at the gas station?”

Odd started to look a bit guilty, as he glanced over at me. “Well, I… got really hungry earlier… I’m sorry, Cat Girl…”

But then his tone started to pick up, as he thought about what was to come. “But we’ll be getting to the hotel soon, so you and I can get all sorts of yummy goodies! So don’t worry!”

“Okay, Odd,” I giggled. “I guess I shouldn’t be too worried. Plus I’ve been with you for years—almost three to four in this world of ours.”

“At least that many… but I think we get the picture, Cassidy,” Yumi commented, with a bit of a giggle of her own, as she closed her eyes. “If anyone knows Odd as well as Ulrich, it’s you.”

“You’re right,” Aelita came in. “But she knows mostly all of us.”

“Can’t be helped that my powers kinda have biographical prowess, too,” I smiled sheepishly.

“I don’t think any of us know the full extent of your powers,” Jeremie commented, without even looking up from his laptop’s screen.

“It’s okay, Jeremie,” I nodded, a grin still on my face. “It gets to a point where _I_ don’t know the fullest extent of my powers either. That monster might be one extreme, but I’m not sure about other angles it could take me next.”

Sister soon slid over and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a warm, comforting and disarming hug. “Let’s not worry about that, dear sister. We’ve got a long, fun-filled journey ahead of us.”

I returned the gesture, relaxing. “We are still on the way to Denver.”

“Yes,” Einstein agreed.

And on we went. After another couple of hours of driving, during which we played multiple rounds of I Spy (again, never challenge Einstein), 90 Second Alphabet, and more, an exciting sign passed by out of the corners of some of our eyes, reading “Exit 210 A: Colfax Avenue,” which meant that we were getting very close to Denver. Everything seemed to be going wonderfully. There were very few (if slightly adrenaline-fueled, since the other day) reckless drivers, there were barely any clouds in the sky, and our ride was going nice and smooth, if you don’t count the silly back-and-forth comments between Odd and Ulrich, on occasion.

You probably know where this is headed, don’t you?

Well, so did I. Something just felt off. Everything looked so perfect. I had seen enough action-adventure movies with similar suspenseful plot hooks to know that not everything was as good as it looked. Heck, some Lyoko missions were too smooth at times, but I knew XANA’s monsters were lurking about. And that’s precisely what I was feeling here. What if Max and her flock actually hadn’t taken care of the whitecoats and Erasers, as Hunter and I had feared, earlier? What if they were lying in wait for us to go into Denver, or anywhere close, and catch us off-guard? I really, really hoped I was wrong… There were times when I liked being right and times where I was glad I was wrong, and this happens to be one of the latter times.

And you know what? To quote my geisha friend Yumi: “Oh, I’m sick of _always being right_!”

Within a few seconds, as Georgina’s eyes bounced up to the rearview mirror, they widened as she noticed a white, unmarked van with a Nevada license plate slowly gaining on us from behind. It was then that she immediately realized that we hadn’t indeed escaped from her former co-workers at The School.

“I really don’t like to have to say this,” she lamented, trying to keep her voice calm, lest she throw all of us, especially me, into another tizzy, “but they’ve caught up with us.”

“These guys don’t know when to quit,” Odd quipped.

“What should we do now?” Yumi asked.

“Do we need to put anyone out again?” Ulrich deadpanned.

“Not this time,” Jeb replied, glancing over at the mirror on his side of the van.

I sighed in relief. “Okay, to repeat Yumi, even if I don’t like doing so: What should we do now?”

“How long until we reach our hotel?” Aelita asked.

“In roughly twenty-five minutes, give-or-take,” Jeremie replied, actually looking away from his computer this time.

“We can handle until then. Hold onto something, because it might be a bumpy ride from here,” Georgina took command, flipping her long, sandy blond hair back over her seat and donning a pair of sunglasses.

Her eyes continually bouncing between the rearview mirror and the highway in front of her, she watched the van get closer and closer until it had come within feet of the back of our van. As we grabbed onto the nearest surfaces we could find (and I held Kiwi and Odd at the same time), we felt the vehicle begin to slide to the left, a move the white van slowly copied not long after. Noticing there were very few cars in front of her, Georgina decided to swerve back to the right, only changing two lanes this time, rather than one. That didn’t even slow the white van down at all; it only took the whitecoat behind the wheel half of a second to adjust for Georgina’s change in direction.

Next, feeling even more daring, Georgina decided to speed up, politely passing a car that was in front of us, curious to see how the white van would respond, yet fearing they were probably going to take out the vehicle she passed. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, even though the white van still caught up to us, once more.

Up ahead, Georgina spotted our exit, and hoping to trick the white van, she swerved all the way to the leftmost lane, before veering back to the right, and changing onto the exit lane, moments before she would have gone off the road. A satisfied smile slowly found its way to her lips, hoping she had tricked the whitecoat driving the white van, only to have it fall again, as she soon saw a familiar sight in the rearview mirror, once more.

Switching tactics, and her usual gentle, kind, and caring demeanor, Georgina pulled off the off-ramp and onto I-70BL, where she could still drive at a similar speed, yet there was more traffic to contend with. “Keep hanging on, guys!”

She started by swerving around one or two cars, which gained a few random horn honks (and possibly, yells and shouts) from those drivers, yet this didn’t seem to faze the white van. Next, she sped up a bit, noticing the white van was encroaching further on our back end; it adjusted its own speed to compensate. She then decided to take a curve a bit faster than average, quickly fixing the van’s direction before it could spin out of control, curious to see how the white van would take that. It didn’t even flinch.

Georgina was starting to run out of ideas and was getting deeper and deeper into traffic when we suddenly heard a loud bang on the roof of the van. While the rest of us were quite surprised by this, the former whitecoat had decided to take off her kid gloves. If whoever was in the white van along with that whitecoat was going to try and infiltrate our van as we drove, it had another thing coming.

The sandy blond’s driving became slightly more intense, as the car swerved more violently, in an attempt to dislodge whatever was hanging on. This only caused more angry beeps from adjacent vehicles, but some of them were also quite surprised by what was on the roof of our van. She did nearly everything she could think to, that was at least somewhat legal, without slamming on the brakes: she changed lanes quickly, sometimes two or three at a time; she went around a few other cars, ignoring whatever they did in reply; she even got onto a slight straightaway, in a lane with very few other vehicles, to speed up and slow down a few times, just to see what would happen.

That’s when things began to get more interesting, as not long after Georgina returned to normal speed, a few more bangs were heard, followed by something flying in front of the windshield. It was Nudge, with her fist hanging outward, ready to punch whoever was on top of our vehicle. This brought a grin to everyone’s face, as we watched her pants and shoes quickly disappear off the top of the windshield as she flew up toward the roof.

Looking up, we began to hear more bangs against the roof, one after the other in varying succession, as we assumed Nudge and the thing she was fighting were duking it out over our heads. It was really quite impressive, imagining how the fight was going, with nothing but irregularly-timed bangs to go by. We were sure that Nudge was winning, though, as whatever it was she was fighting, she probably had a good deal of experience with, as well as the rest of Max’s flock.

A while, and a few more bangs later, we heard a loud slam, which worried me, and a few others, that the roof might cave in. Looking over toward one of the windows, just to see what we were driving past, we were scared even further, when the corner of Nudge’s wing appeared near the top, suggesting the monster was getting the upper hand. Thankfully, it soon disappeared, and Nudge was back in the swing of things, both physically and literally.

More bangs followed as some of us couldn’t help but watch the carpeted roof to see if all the commotion on top was creating holes, or bending the metal, but surprisingly the van’s roof was holding up quite well. And with the heck that Nudge and the weird creature were doing to it, it was quite surprising.

As Ulrich, Yumi, Sister, and William looked out the side windows, as the bangs continued at irregular intervals, Georgina drove the van across a bridge. It was of decent length, and it was this that gave Nudge an idea. As the bangs continued, some of us began to wonder how much longer the battle was going to take, and a few even wondered if Nudge indeed would be victorious, as with no way of knowing how the campaign was progressing, the uncertainty put me, and most of the others, on edge.

One _bang_. Then another. Then a couple more. After a few seconds of silence, yet another _bang_ was heard, before we found something quite exciting waft into our ears: it was the sound of an Eraser crying out in pain. At the same time, Ulrich, Yumi, Sister, and William happened to see an Eraser go flying off the top of the van, and over the bridge, through the side windows. At that very moment, the collective tension in the van dissipated like water vapor.

“Don’t start cheering too soon!” Georgina ordered, unusually strict. “Company’s still tailing us.”

Without even stopping to contemplate what had come over the usually cheerful, warm, and kind former whitecoat, every one of us turned to look out the back window, finding that the white, unmarked van was still behind us. Once again, Georgina started darting around cars, changing lanes and trying other seemingly legal moves to try and lose them, but it still kept pace.

But that’s when things got interesting.

Not long after Georgina settled into the rightmost lane, something unusual happened: the white, unmarked van suddenly took the exit. This was quite surprising; what was it doing? Did it have somewhere else to go? Was it going after the Eraser that Nudge did a number on? Or did they know where we were going and were trying to head us off? Either way, no matter how many questions we all had, it was good to see that they had backed off, at least for the moment.

A short while after, Georgina took the next exit, and the ride was mostly quiet on the way to the hotel. Everyone was a combination of worry, relief, and possible motion sickness from Georgina forgetting she wasn’t in the Fast and the Furry from Tom and Jerry.

Pulling into the luxury hotel’s parking lot, rather than pull into one of the openings near the front of the building, she instead went around to the back of the building, brought the van to a stop, and turned off the motor.

“Everyone okay?” Jeb asked, chuckling nervously as he whirled around in his seat, glasses askew.

“If California was bad, this was definitely worse as crap,” Kaitlyn muttered, holding her stomach.

For a moment, my vision started seeing stars. “Uh… I know it was necessary, but… maybe we should’ve had some Dramamine on board…”

“Uh, Cassidy, I hate to burst your bubble, but that would only work for seasickness,” Jeremie commented, himself looking a light shade of green.

“Actually, we have made it so it could work with motion sickness, too,” Jeb gently countered. “Everyone else okay?”

“Let me just wait for the room to stop spinning,” Hunter groaned, leaning his head forward, with his hands on opposite sides of his temples, “so my brain can recalibrate. Wow...”

“My breakfast and Cassidy’s popcorn wants to come back up to say ‘hello,’ but otherwise all’s well!” Odd moaned, grabbing his stomach.

Yumi and Ulrich nodded, both having stronger constitutions.

I looked over to my former first roommate. “I think Aelita’s wishing she’d rather be on Lyoko, surviving Odd’s virtually suicidal/homicidal stunts, than on this ride. Her wings are out.”

Indeed, she was imitating Hunter’s pose with gritted teeth, the same sort of face she made whenever she used to have visions, not long after her first materialization onto Earth. Surprisingly, her wings didn’t rip her purple dress off, but upon further inspection, she had cut slits into it. Naturally, this worried Jeremie greatly.

“Aelita!” Jeremie called out in fear, sliding across the seats to her side, and placing his hands upon her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… I’m not sure...” she cried out, her voice strained, worrying Jeremie further.

“I think once we get checked in and into our suites, you can rest up,” Ulrich spoke up, reassuring her and Jeremie at the same time.

Of course, even though the ability to relax was something we all needed, I had this gigantic feeling within myself, like a bug buzzing in my ear, telling me that we weren’t exactly in the clear, just yet.

“That white van is still out there,” I blurted out. “I can feel it.”

“Are you sure?” Patrick asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

I nodded. “We shouldn’t go in yet.”

“But they’re far enough away, aren’t they?” William commented, trying to sound hopeful. “We could always check in, and hide our van somewhere, that way they won’t even know we’re here.”

“William… my intuition’s buzzing immensely! I’m not too sure of this,” I grimaced, struggling to keep my voice level with him.

Seeing my reaction to _mi ex novio’s_ reply, Odd gently wrapped his arms around me and softly cooed into my ear. “Relax, Cat Girl… you don’t wanna stress yourself out again.”

“Sorry, Ninja-Cat-Boy! I have to check around.” Undaunted, I gently broke free from _mi novio’s_ grip, crawled to the back window, and stared out of the glass, patrolling for a white van. “Georgina, what state’s license plates were on that vehicle?”

“Nevada,” she answered, the tone of voice turning back to the gentle and kind one she always had.

With this information, my eyes continued panning around the area, almost like a security camera on a turret, just searching for any vehicle with out-of-state plates that didn’t have families in them.

Suddenly, after only a few minutes of fruitless hunting, a white van parked a stall across from ours. I raised a brow, finding a man with messy, dirty blond hair and sharp green eyes covered by glasses behind the wheel. Right next to him was a woman I thought I would _never_ see again. Throwing my mental shields up, I commanded myself, _Get the plates, Girl! That may be Reilly and Mandy up there, but you need more proof than that._

Squinting at the front bumper, I found the plates becoming clearer. “ _Nevada…_ ” I hissed to myself. Raising my voice, I turned to my friends. “We might need to prepare for battle, guys!”

“That’s great, but uh, how are we gonna do that?” Ulrich protested, raising his hands in the air. “We can’t take these guys down by ourselves!”

“Okay, I know we used to be human, and what-have-you,” I sighed, feeling him throw my words back at me, “but we have Pencak Silat and Aikido. We shouldn’t be ashamed of what we’ve gone through. Why? Because we’re good and we are strong! We have a tactician, and we can fight. Plus, with a few things in our van, we surely can take down a few of these rascals.”

My eyes widened, feeling a fire burning freely within my heart that I hadn’t felt in ages. “So this is how it feels when you find the strength to finally fight back!”

“Now _that’s_ my dear sister,” Sister smiled. “Always ready to help a friend.”

“You’re right!” Yumi, feeling a bit amped up by my words, exclaimed in excitement.

“But we shouldn’t just go gallivanting into this. Several of us could get captured, and that won’t be any good,” Jeremie cautioned.

“That’s an excellent point, Jeremie,” I nodded. “Plus, Max and her flock could help, too.” _Angel, we’re gonna need some backup. Have Max tell Nudge and Fang to go into the hotel and hide out, in case Erasers go into there awaiting their prey._

Instantly, her sweet voice came into my mind, soothing me somewhat. _Got it, Cassidy._

“Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?” Kaitlyn asked.

“We have a tire iron, so we could bean a few of the Erasers in the head if they get too close,” I blinked, checking the surroundings. “Any rocks you can pick up can be used for long-range. Let’s be careful, though. I don’t think we want to be charged with murder in _any_ degree. Hm… Anyone with a pocket knife, as soon as we have more than an opening, could slash some tires near the end of the battle.”

“I think I’m really starting to rub off on you,” Ulrich remarked with a smile.

“Focus, Ulrich Stern!” I blinked seriously. “We don’t have any time for flattery. Hm… We don’t have a two-by-four, or anything long, so having an ‘out of the ballpark’ moment is definitely not an option. Not unless we ask the hotel staff for something like that, and chances are they’d think we’d gone nuts…”

An amusing thought ran through my mind, as I giggled slightly. “Now if someone had somehow procured super strength and found a way to lift a washer or dryer, that’d be hilarious.

“Now let’s see… We still need our cases, so no one use anyone’s luggage. Our wings could be useful, even if they’re underdeveloped still.”

 _Nudge and Fang are in place, Cassidy,_ Angel’s thoughts wafted into my brain.

 _Good._ I smiled, looking back to the rear window. To my surprise, no one had even set one foot outside of the van behind us. It was as though they were taunting us.

“What are these rapscallions waiting for?!” I growled.

“I’ll bet they’re trying to formulate a strategy of their own,” Jeremie theorized.

“Unless they want one of us to step out,” Aelita came up next, finally with it, folding her wings slightly.

“I’m sure that once I step out, the driver _and_ his passenger will want more than a few words with me,” I blinked, seething in rage.

“Well, _they’ll_ have to get a few words from _us_ ,” Odd interjected, starting to get a bit angry at the thought, as well, “and they’re _not_ going to be pretty!”

“I know that, Odd.” I smiled appreciatively, before letting my face fall gradually. “But we definitely need to come up with a plan. Otherwise, we’ll be back at Square One again, under stricter consequences. And I cannot have that happen to any one of us. Remember what they did to Hunter, and to me.”

“We do. And we’ll definitely kick some ass,” Kaitlyn smiled determinedly. “We’re Lyoko Warriors, after all.”

“And I know pillows aren’t good weapons unless we want to get charged with murder in any degree,” I found myself going back to my original speech.

“Cassidy, I know you’re trying your hardest not to make death threats, but these guys have been tailing us for miles,” Kaitlyn reassured.

“The last time I tried to think of stuff for revenge, Aelita got scared because I threw a lot of murdering into it, and everyone yelled at me. I’m just trying to figure out ways for them not to paint themselves as the good guys if we get tried in court,” I argued, turning to face my platinum blond-haired former second roommate.

“So?” Ulrich argued, garnering my attention next. “We’ve all been mistreated by them, especially you.”

“I know, Samurai… My wrist and neck have the scars to prove it.” My gaze lowered to the side of my wrist, the discolored scar from the School still there.

It was then pulled away, not long after, when I felt a soft hand slowly and soothingly rub my back in a relaxing way. Looking up, I saw it was Aelita, with a warm, calming, and disarming, yet determined, smile upon her face, her wings slightly spread.

“And I’m sure those are the last scars any of us will get from them,” she soothed, looking into my eyes. “They can’t possibly take us back. Not with all of the help we’ve got.”

“Well, Princess, I think they’ve got their play ready, and Reilly’s the quarterback,” Odd muttered, in a voice I remembered he used when he and Yumi sprang Sister from the hospital.

Hearing this, I quickly turned my head toward the back window, in the direction _mi novio_ was looking. Sure enough, a group of whitecoats and Erasers began stepping out of the van, either from the front doors, the sliding side doors, or even out the tailgate, until there were nearly as many of them combined, as a football team. It really gave new meaning to the term “clown car.”

I gritted my teeth, my stomach raveling into knots, like a tangled hank of yarn. “And we’ve got nothing for a defense.”

Suddenly Patrick’s eyes widened, a smile growing on his facial features.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Patrick! That’s your ‘I’m gonna pass this exam even if I hadn’t studied’ face,” Kaitlyn growled, as though an ex just ticked her off. “You know it’s not gonna work!”

“Maybe we can use the same technique we used when Cassidy’s life was on the line,” he confidently scoffed, blowing off his female cousin.

“But we don’t have anything we can rearrange,” Yumi interjected, looking quite surprised, “that we can use as a barricade!”

“ _Y, Patricio, ¡estoy despierta y viva!_ ” I protested.

But Patrick seemed to not be finished. “We aren’t gonna build a barricade, Cassidy. We’re going to do this from the point the security came in.”

“Patrick, do you mean defending my honor, or have you taken a level in Odd?”

“We’re gonna fight in the same formation, with some minor changes,” he smirked.

“And what is _that_ supposed to mean?” Sam asked.

“First off, Samantha, you’ll be fighting alongside Kaitlyn, Ari, Ulrich, Yumi, Sissi, William, and me. Secondly, Jeremie, you did your best, but you’re switching positions with Odd. Kiwi, you stay in the van unless they somehow find a way to get in. And Cassidy, you, Hunter, and Aelita are staying in the rear.”

“I think I’m strong enough to start fighting again,” I growled at him, offended that he would make a remark such as that.

“But I think you should hang back a bit,” Yumi warned me, still feeling slightly unsure about my abilities, in contrast to myself, “until you get a chance to relearn Pencak Silat.”

“But if they overpower you, then I want to fight,” I blinked.

“And if they overpower _us_ ,” Ulrich reasoned as he locked eyes with me, “what makes you think they’re not gonna overpower _you_ , too? How do you know you’re still able to fight, after your coma?”

“Do I need to remind you who tried to defend Jeremie from _our_ evil twins the first round,” I growled, wondering why they were dead-set against me trying to fight,  “before you came in _late_ for the party because you _needed a decent grade_? Who _talked smack_ to XANA when he trapped her in the Amazonian lab? Who came up with a plan and _only_ told Einstein and Aelita, for fear that too many in-the-know would make XANA overthrow it? Was I even weak?!”

This only made Samurai’s eyebrows slant downward, his tone turning angrier and more argumentative, like mine. “No, but do you _really_ want them to _kidnap_ you again?! If we throw you out there, it’ll be like us just _handing_ you over to them! The nurses had to help you learn how to walk again, after your coma! How do we know you didn’t forget Pencak Silat, too, huh?!”

I had to admit, he had gotten me, there. “I know, Ulrich. I know. I just feel like I’ve been holding you all, and myself, back a bit. Like, I shouldn’t have told you that we couldn’t fight them when we were back at Kadic, but—”

“Cassidy, no.” This time, Yumi jumped in, garnering our attention, her voice slightly stern at first, but calming down not long after. “You need to stop worrying about that. Look, what’s done is done, okay? Even if we could do a Return to the Past when we get back to France, would you really wanna relive that day all over again? It’s in the past, Cassidy. You need to stop letting it bother you.”

“Sorry, Yumi,” I blinked, my cheeks heating up.

As Ulrich reached over to place a hand upon my shoulder, and Yumi leaned forward to embrace me in a warm, soothing and comforting hug, a few taps on the side window pulled us away from our tasks. Max and Angel floated outside our window, held aloft by their wings, looking somewhat anxious.

“I don’t mean to worry those with weak stomachs, but… the troops are going to advance if we don’t do something,” Max ordered, folding her arms.

“In other words…out of the car?” I squeaked.

“Afraid so, Cass. This is a huge army compared to our seven.” She furrowed her brows.

“I know that Max,” another voice announced.

“No, not you, Gazzy.”

“Lucky we have one Eraser on our side,” I blinked, looking over at Ari, before swerving my attention over to Patrick. “I don’t know of any other plans, so yours may be the best choice.”

“Okay, Hunter, Aelita, male cuz, you three go into the hotel and hide,” he ordered. “Max, you and Gasman guard them until they are inside, then join the battle.”

Hunter merely nodded in reply, looking somewhat tense, though trying to hide it as best he could.

“Good luck, Patrick,” Jeremie commented, giving a last nervous look around the van, just in case. “And good luck, everyone.”

“You, too, Einstein,” I nodded, shivers in my feet. “ _Ten cuidado_.”

Jeremie gave me one last reassuring smile, before he, Aelita, and Hunter quickly slid the side door open, and climbed out of the van. With Max in the lead and Gasman tailing them, both winged crusaders keeping their eyes and ears wide open, the five quickly made their way around the other side of the hotel, toward the entrance, hoping the whitecoats and Erasers didn’t plant any additional members on their route.

With the five out of sight, Jeremie’s male cousin turned his attention back to the rest of us.

“Okay, Ulrich, Yumi, Kaitlyn, Sissi, William, Sam, and Ari, to the front side with the rest of the flock and me. Odd, guard Cassidy,” Patrick ordered. “Max and Gaz will join us later.”

“I have a feeling my vision of this battle is going to come true,” I clenched my toes in my shoes, trying to stop the shaking.

That’s when I felt an arm wrap around my body, belonging to none other than _mi novio._

“Maybe it was for something else?” he gently tried to reassure me in his own way. “You didn’t see it happening during _this_ battle, did you? For all we know, it might not even be in this state!”

“I don’t know, but okay, Odd.” For the best, I smiled at him.

He gave me one of his Cheshire Cat-style grins, which made me giggle a bit, while giving me the feeling he had to be hiding some deep nerves behind it, as Ulrich, Yumi, Sam, Kaitlyn, William, Sister, and Patrick all charged toward the whitecoats and Erasers, with Odd guiding me not far behind.

Yet, shortly before we even got close to the line of scrimmage, an Eraser suddenly broke through the middle of the lines like a freight train, separating _mi novio_ from me. A sigh escaped my throat as I lowered my head in disgust. _Great… Odd’s now in danger._

Turning toward where he took him off to, I stomped toward the mutant of The School. “Hey, fleabag… I suggest you let my boyfriend go, or suffer the consequences.”

The menacing creature slowly turned to face me, his eyes and snout curled in a terrifying smirk. Every inch of him was so fearsome, right down to the scent of his breath, which made my nose want to leap off from my face, in terror.

“And what may those be?” he taunted with a deep snarl, sizing me up to further intimidate me.

“This!” Without a second thought, I smirked, revved back, and punched him upside the snout, sending him reeling as his freakish hand let Odd’s hood go.

As the creature took several steps backward, bringing both of his gnarled paw-like hands up to his face, my wildcard boyfriend fell to his hands and knees with a slightly audible grunt, before slowly getting to his feet, dusting himself off, and looking up at me. “Thanks, Cat Girl!”

“No one messes with my boyfriend and gets away with it,” I growled, blowing my knuckles off.

Odd let out a chuckle, as his grin increased. “You tell ’em, Cat Girl the Magnificent!”

“Thanks, but no time,” I blinked.

Right away, the Eraser I just challenged shook off the force of the impact, spattering the parking lot with some of his blood. “Beginner’s luck.”

“Really? I’d say that was pretty _expert_ ,” I snarled, raising my foot and landing a blow on his chest. His shoes skidded backward on the pavement, as he let out a slightly pained grunt, clutching the affected area.

“You really think you’re _that_ good, huh, kid?!” his angry growl echoed in my direction.

“Punch and Lanka: 2. Eraser: 0.5.”

“Huh?” _Mi novio_ spun around, looking at me with slight confusion. “When did he get half a point?”

“Caught me off-guard when he captured you,” I blinked, unfurling my wings. “If he brought you to the whitecoats, then it would’ve been a full point to him.”

Appearing to shake off that attack nearly as quickly as the last, the Eraser began to build up momentum as he charged toward me.

“How’s _THIS_ for a full point?!” he roared, leaping into the air, and slamming his right foot directly into my back, right between my wings, before I was able to turn around. Knocking me forward onto the pavement, he then proceeded to quickly grab both of my arms, and hoist my lightly dusty body up to his own, chuckling evilly at me.

But just as quickly as he attacked and grabbed me, a pair of black combat boots came into view, hit him square in… um… yes, and caused a twisted soprano note to come out of his mouth, dropping me on my chest and stomach instantly. I coughed as I looked up. “Thanks, Yumi.”

“Don’t mention it,” Yumi replied kindly, offering me her hand. “You really had him, there.”

I attempted to get on my hands and knees, arms and legs shaking from the brunt of the impact, before gratefully taking her offer. “I think I’m gonna feel the boot in my back in the morning. Ow…”

“Then it’s a good thing this hotel’s got a wonderful spa, too,” my geisha friend replied, as she gently helped me to my feet. “I’m sure most of us will wanna go there after we finish these guys off.”

Before I could respond, a noise grabbed our attention. Turning my head to the right, I saw something even my visions warned me would happen: Ulrich in trouble. Returning to Yumi, I blinked. “You take the Eraser; I’ll get the whitecoat.”

Without a second thought, she followed me toward the Eraser. “I’m on it.”

As we neared the two enemies, we split off into two separate directions, with Max soon flying in to give Yumi a hand with the Eraser. The whitecoat in my sights, I began to pick up speed, before swinging my fist outward, and delivering a crippling punch to the side of his head, knocking him to the pavement in surprise. Nearby, in nearly the same span of time, Yumi leaped forward, shoving her right black combat boot into the Eraser’s cranium. With the momentum this gave the creature as he was sent flying to one side, Max then delivered a flying kick to the other side of the Eraser’s head, causing him to drop Ulrich.

“Thanks, Max and Yumi,” he sighed gratefully.

I dusted my hands off when arms circled around my chest, followed by one of two voices I really never, ever wanted to hear again. “Damsel in distress, aren’t we, Cassidy René McGuire?!”

 _Of course… Reilly…_ I gritted my teeth, snaking my body from his grip. Now on the ground, I launched a spinning kick to his ankles, knocking the man off his feet. He started to fall toward the ground but bringing my foot back, I kicked him straight in the back, launching him straight into a nearby tree. He slowly slumped to the ground, giving the impression that the blow had knocked him out, causing several of the whitecoats to drop their battle strategies and rush to his aid.

Nearby, Odd looked quite surprised for a moment, as he got to his feet, and turned to look at me. “Wow, Cat Girl! You really showed _him_ how to be a tree hugger!” He commented, slowly regaining his former grin as I returned to full height.

“Thanks, Odd,” I smiled, feeling him pat my shoulder. “At least _he’ll_ be in traction for a while.”

“Anyway, it seems your vision has come true in some parts, Cassidy,” he noted. “You feeling okay?”

“My back hurts a bit, but not too bad.” I began to reply, rubbing the affected area a bit, before I came to a stop, as I saw a flash of white zoom past the edge of my field of vision. So fast, that I really couldn’t tell who it was.

But thankfully, a member of Max’s flock _had_ seen it.

“She’s going into the hotel!” Gazzy shouted. “Stop her!”

I nodded, rushing past our van and onto the sidewalk. Just as the mysterious figure dashed through the automatic sliding doors into the hotel lobby, a pair of paw-like hands grabbed my arms, stopping me dead in my tracks.

“Think you’re going somewhere, _McGuire?!_ ” It was the Eraser from earlier, snarling into my ears, his grip on my hands like handcuffs that were much too small for my wrists. “I think you haven’t learned your lesson!”

I winced, his wrists digging into my back, right where his boot had hit me before. “That’s what you say, Eraser boy!”

And what timing; before I was able to retaliate, the Eraser got a gentle tap on his shoulder, which caused him to turn his head.

“I think you’re hurting that girl.” It was Ari, staring angrily into the eyes of the Eraser. “You need to ease up a little!”

Before he could react, Jeb’s son slammed his fist into the Eraser’s head, knocking him onto the pavement so hard, it nearly left a dent, and freeing me from his tight grip. I then felt him gently pull me back to my feet, and dust me off.

My mind about to fool my vision into seeing stars again, I returned to the van. “Thanks, Ari… Ooh…”

Once I was inside, Georgina gently helped me lay on my back on the seats, before softly patting my forehead with a washcloth, that she had wet down with warm water from a water bottle she had kept up front with her, while she drove. This slowly helped me to keep my eyes open, even though most of my consciousness wanted to drop out altogether.

“Georgina…” I moaned.

“Don’t worry, Cassidy. Just breathe and hang in there,” she cooed. “You did a wonderful job so far.”

I started to slow my breathing down, trying my hardest to stay awake, as the former whitecoat gently patted my forehead, along with other parts of exposed skin on my body, helping to keep me relaxed, but awake.

“I saw what you did to Reilly. I think he’ll remember _that_ for a very long time,” she grinned.

“Yeah, it’s very easy to face _him_ when he’s not cracking open emotional wounds,” I said, groaning as I rose to a sitting position.

Georgina gently placed her free hand on my shoulder, stopping me in mid-motion. “I think you should lay down. It’ll help your back feel better.”

I nodded, laying on my side while having a view of the war. “And they say love is a battlefield.”

She let out a slight chuckle as she gently lifted my shirt, to get a better view. She grimaced a bit once she saw the mark, which was right above the scar I got from XANA. “He really knew where to kick you; any lower, and he would’ve struck that mark XANA gave you, before.”

“Yeesh. I wish I could see it,” I winced.

“I wouldn’t recommend that.” Her voice was gentle and soothing, but firm. “We’ll have to take care of it, once we get up into the suites. I’ll probably end up pulling you and the others, even Max and her flock, into the bath, once we’re all done here before anyone goes to the spa. Don’t want anyone wondering what sorts of crazy things happened to all of you.”

“I think this battle’s the only explanation they need. All we need is a Marion Moseby yelling, ‘There’ll be no battles in the parking lot of my hotel!’” I smiled, wincing as my back gave a jolt of pain.

“At least we’re not at the Tipton,” Jeb commented with a slight chuckle.

“Yeah, good thing,” I muttered. “I think we all might need something to counteract the pain after this.”

“Georgina and I will get everyone—” Jeb began to calm me, before something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, bringing a look of anger to his face. One of the whitecoats, Mandy, had walked out of the hotel carrying someone over her shoulder. He couldn’t quite figure out who it was, but just the sight of this led him to let out a growl of anger.

“Oh, no,” Georgina also growled.

I rose to a sitting position, moments before she placed the figure on the parking lot on our side of the battle. Curious, I got to my feet, ignoring the painful signals my back was sending me, along with Georgina’s calls to come back, and climbed out of the van to get a better look. My eyes widened further when I recognized the blond hair of our resident genius.

“Jeremie…”

My vision had come true. Once I gave it more thought, I realized the platform Jeremie was lying on in that vision I had looked just like the pavement underneath him. I really, _really_ wanted Odd to be right… but Jeremie had been knocked out, all because of a sneak attack from that stupid whitecoat! I had been afraid they’d plan some sort of sneak offense, which is why I had told Angel to position Fang and Nudge inside the hotel, with Jeremie, Aelita, and Hunter… how could she have gotten past them, in the first place? How could she have just gone straight up to Jeremie, and gotten him like that? What kind of power was that woman _packing?!_

Speaking of that one, Mandy’s dark, evil chuckles echoed from behind me, as she slowly snuck up. “Checkmate…”

Shivers whistling down my spine, I whirled around. “NO!”

She let out another evil chuckle, snatching me in her arms before I could react. “And now you’ve so willingly given yourself to us! Such a noble and brave little girl… it’s almost a shame I have to take you out before your younger sister, too…”

That did it. I could feel the anger building up within me, with steam practically threatening to shoot out of my ears. Summing up as much energy as I could, I slammed both of my feet into hers, shoving her backward onto her back as she unwittingly freed me from her grip.

“Threatening and even harming Aelita’s boyfriend, then going after her herself—oh…you’re in for a _world_ of _hurt_!” I shouted, as Mandy slowly got back up, growling angrily at me.

“You _dare_ tell _me_ what _you’re_ going to do, young l—” Mandy started in again, trying to talk down to me in anger, before two more feet slammed into her stomach, turning her words into a pained grunt, and sending her back onto the pavement once more.

Clutching the part in question, she opened her eyes after the impact, looking around at her other comrades. Most of the whitecoats and Erasers had been knocked down, or even knocked out, with the few that were left standing having a hard time against the team of former human children, and part of the Flock. She gritted her teeth in anger as she beheld this.

“Let’s get out of here!” she roared, gaining the other whitecoats’ and Erasers’ attention. “They’re much more powerful than they were before! We need to regroup! Everyone back in the van! And get the heck over here, and help Reilly and me up!!”

My friends, and Max’s flock, slowly relaxed as they watched the whitecoats and Erasers throw threats at them before some raced toward Mandy, and the others toward the unconscious Reilly, lifting both up and carrying them back to the white van. As I watched, I slowly began to feel the world around me get hazier and hazier, while slowly losing the feeling in my body. Sitting down on the pavement, two familiar talking dogs trotted up to me.

“It’s okay, Cassidy,” Total soothed. “Those scoundrels are going to be long gone…”

I couldn’t hear the rest of his sentence, however, as everything slowly went quiet, and my whole entire world went black, as I gradually laid back onto the pavement.

\---

With the battle over, Max and Fang gently lifted Jeremie and me up into their arms, and carried us into the hotel, as Georgina approached the front desk, and got our room key cards. This took about a couple of minutes, and soon our luggage and equipment were brought up to our specific suites. Like the hotel in Las Cruces, New Mexico, five suites were rented out, and a team of at least four or five of us, if not more, was assigned to each. 

The next thing I knew, I felt myself slowly return to consciousness upon a nice, soft bed, with most of my friends looking down at me with curious, and concerned, gazes.

“She’s waking up,” I heard Jeremie whisper.

“Uh… ooh…” I moaned, my head still in a slight state of dizziness, but waning.

“Ohhh…” Sister spoke in an anxious tone as she reached over to touch my back, “are you okay, my poor, dear sister?”

“Ow, ow… not there, Sister, please…” I whined. “An Eraser kicked me there…”

“Oh, sorry, dear sister,” she moaned, quickly retracting her hand.

“It’s okay. You had no idea. Are you okay, Jeremie?” I asked, looking over at him.

Jeremie nodded. “I’m much better, now. You see, I…uh kinda gave myself up to the Eraser… if I hadn’t, he uh, well… he would have…” His cheeks began to redden, as he started softly rubbing the back of his head. But I knew what he meant, anyway.

“You actually turned the deck against yourself so Aelita wouldn’t be found?” I asked, before squealing in happiness. “Aw… Einstein… you’re so heroic for her. Franz would be so proud of you! I'm so sure that he’ll approve of you taking Aelita's hand in marriage.”

Nearly two-thirds of Einstein’s face had turned beet red by that point, and he found it harder to speak in coherent sentences. “Hey, I, uh… only, uh... did my best… um… I, uh, knew she, uh…  was gonna—”

Then a squeak left his throat, killing off anything remotely close to a clear statement.

“You’re a genius, Jeremie,” Aelita smiled, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his cheek. The bespectacled blond slowly gained a love-struck grin upon his lips, while slowly calming down, almost melting into her arms.

That’s when I suddenly thought about someone else. “Um… Is Hunter okay?” I asked, worried for his sake.

Speaking of all things good, the black-haired programmer spoke up. “A b-bit… shaken up… b-b-but I’m okay.”

“Oh, good. That’s wonderful news,” I smiled in relief.

Odd softly ran his fingers through my hair, sounding a bit concerned. “You really ended up pushing yourself to the limit, Cat Girl.”

“I guess I did, but most of that was to help others.”

Georgina then began to gently, slowly and carefully check me over, looking under my shirt, gently rolling up my sleeves, checking each of my arms, my shoulders, my sides, and then gently rolling up my pant legs to examine my legs and ankles. She already knew of the bruise on my back but didn’t want to help me flip over, for fear of aggravating it. Aside from a few scratches and scrapes, she didn’t find anything needing stitches.

“We’ll have to get you fully patched up,” she spoke calmly, before gently kissing my temple, “along with everyone else, but I don’t see anything too serious.”

“That’s good…” I smiled, feeling Georgina’s love.

The long, sandy-blond-haired former whitecoat soon embraced Hunter not long after, and gently kissed his temple as well, helping him to relax a bit.

“So, would you like to have a bath, Cassidy?” she asked me, returning her attention to me. “I’ve already gotten most of the others.”

“That would feel nice, Georgina, but I hope the shower head doesn’t hurt my back,” I fretted lightly.

“It won’t be, my dear,” she promised, relaxing me some. “When I go to rinse you off, I’ll make sure it’s extra gentle.”

Trusting Georgina at her word, I followed her into the bathroom. Looking around, I was quite pleasantly surprised to see how similar, and yet how different, the bathrooms in the suites were, compared to the hotel in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The bathtub looked like it could hold five, if not six, and even had nozzles along its walls, suggesting jacuzzi-like jets; the shower was enclosed in glass, like the last hotel where I angsted, after my nightmare, and had multiple showerheads, including three large ones up above, and even a few nozzles on the sides, which looked as though they could shoot gentle streams of water at you; and there was also a hot tub, covered by a thick, snap-down top, that looked like it could seat nearly as many as the bathtub did. It was amazing what a little extra money per night could get you, especially when you had all sorts of money to throw around.

As I glanced around at the bathroom’s interiors, Georgina set to work pulling extra soft, white towels off of the racks, creating a lovely bed of towels on the floor for me to lay on, once my dirty clothes were off. Seeing her do this, I noticed she also had a first-aid kit sitting nearby, and assumed she had probably used it for the others, before and after their respective baths. I only hoped whatever she put on my back wouldn’t sting too much; it was already quite sensitive enough as it was, and even stretching was painful.

Georgina took only a few minutes to assemble an excellent, soft towel bed, and then walked over to gently help me out of my clothes. She was extra careful to remove my shirt, noting the spot where the Eraser had kicked me, earlier, along with a few scratches on both of my arms, not wanting to aggravate them further. My shoes were next, followed by my socks, and it gave her an extra chance to double-check my feet. Thankfully, no damage happened to Sister’s pedicure work a month or two ago. Next came my pants, and my underwear was slipped off gently and carefully, with one more look at my legs, now that no clothing was in the way. Aside from a slight bruise from Mandy snatching me up on my right thigh, they were okay. It was then that she glanced up at the beautiful, naked, still-low-in-self-esteem winged girl that stood before her, smiling warmly and calmly at her.

“You’re a very beautiful girl, Cassidy,” she cooed, slowly rising to her feet after helping me out of my underwear, “and you shouldn’t be ashamed of your body.”

I smiled slightly, hands grabbing at the pink hair strand and rubbing it subconsciously. “I know. It’s still a bit hard.”

She gently pulled my glasses off, before setting them next to the towel bed, and softly kissing my temple, once more. “I understand. It takes a lot of time, and it can be really hard, especially when you were raised differently.”

My cheeks heated up as I lowered myself onto the towel bed, on my belly. “The fact that I’m underweight still hangs over me like an anvil. It’s a bit hard.”

“But it’s very hard to see that, just by looking at you,” she encouraged, pulling two washcloths from the towel rack, and wetting one down with soothing, warm water from the sink.

“I still see my ribs protrude when I breathe. I feel so—”

I felt Georgina gently press the incredibly soft, warm, wet washcloth against my shoulder, stopping me in my tracks. “Do you remember when I bathed you and Hunter at The School? I’m sure you got a chance to see how Hunter looked without his clothes, and how skinny he was, just like you say you are.”

“I kinda had my back turned with the towel on,” I admitted.

Her tone, while remaining gentle, also took on a slight bit of firmness, as she began to very softly, very soothingly and very gently wipe my arm, from my shoulder blade to the elbow, getting ready to carefully clean the scratches, next. “He didn’t look too different from you, sweetheart… but he wasn’t ashamed of himself. He didn’t try to hide, or cover any part of his body; he was more worried about me bathing him if you remember.”

“Yes.”

She soothingly and slowly wiped my armpit, as she continued to clean my arm, getting the area quite wet. “So if he can be confident, and pleased with how his body looks, whether it’s clothed or not, then you can, too.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry, Georgina.”

“Oh, don’t worry, sweetie,” Georgina cooed, now wiping around the scratches on my arm, getting the rest of it wet, first. “I know it’s going to take some time. But I have confidence and faith in you.”

I slowly began to let myself calm down, as Georgina continued to very soothingly, very slowly and very gently wipe my arm, before lightly dabbing at the scratches to cleanse them slightly, being careful not to make them sting. Once those were finished, she took to my other arm in much the same way, soothingly wiping its entire length, until it was quite wet. My neck, sides, waist, legs, and feet were taken care of afterward, helping me to relax further as I felt Georgina guide the washcloth in a languid, gentle, thorough, careful, and soothing way.

Then it was time for her to tackle my back. She began by soothingly, slowly, thoroughly, gently, and carefully wiping all around the bruise, getting most of my body quite wet in the process, before she decided to test the waters, by dabbing at the injury very, very gently with the tip of the washcloth, hoping I wouldn’t react in a terrible way. She was quite pleased when she noticed my face still looked calm.

Feeling a bit braver, she continued to very gently dab at it with the very soft washcloth, hoping to wipe away any dirt that was on it, before she washed it, later on, something she was hoping wouldn’t be more of a challenge than it was worth. She spent nearly twenty more minutes very gently and soothingly wiping it until it was as wet as the rest of my back half was.

Gently helping me flip over onto my back, and making a makeshift square with some of the spare rolled-up washcloths to elevate the bruise she just wiped off the gentle bed, to be extra careful that I didn’t lay on it, Georgina then ran the washcloth under warm water once more, rinsing it out quite thoroughly, before starting on the front of my neck, wiping it very soothingly, very softly, very gently, and carefully, before moving on to my chest and belly, spending a decent amount of time getting each part nice and wet. Thirty minutes had passed, while Georgina continued her very soothing, very slow, very soft, very gentle and thorough wipe of my entire body, something that relaxed and calmed me considerably, before she soothingly, slowly, and softly wiped my face, forehead, and behind my ears.

Placing the washcloth near the sink, she then knelt down near my feet, looking over at me. “Shall I give you a full-body rub, to check to see if there’s any scratches, scars, bruises or anything I might have missed?”

“Sure,” I smiled.

So she did. Starting with my feet, while I struggled to keep a straight face as her fingers slowly went up and down my soles, and moving upward toward my head, Georgina slowly, soothingly, and very softly rubbed every single inch of skin on my body, something that was even more relaxing than the wipe. She spent some extra time soothingly, softly and slowly rubbing my belly and sides, making sure that she didn’t miss anything, and any scratches she found, she grabbed the washcloth, and very softly, very slowly, very soothingly, and thoroughly, wiped them. Thankfully there weren’t very many at all, but I almost wished she would keep rubbing anyway, because it was just incredibly relaxing, regardless.

But then there was the massage. After she had rubbed absolutely every inch of skin on my back half, making sure to dodge the bruise on my back, and finding only a few other scratches, which were also given a very soothing wipe, Georgina began very softly, very soothingly, and gently massaging my legs, taking a little over fifteen minutes on each leg, before moving up my waist, and onto my back. Here she soothingly, slowly, and softly massaged the parts of my back that weren’t bruised, fearing how I might react if she were to gently massage the bruise itself, if not the other scratches she found with her full-body rub. This was one of the places where she spent the most time soothingly massaging all of the undamaged skin on my back and sides. My shoulders and neck came next, which were given a generous amount of time, before my arms were soothingly, slowly, and softly massaged in much the same way as my back and sides, avoiding the scratches and scrapes.

Then it was time for her to gently help me flip over onto the square once more, and have my front half soothingly massaged, as well. She started from my legs, giving them equal time as their back halves, before moving onto my belly, giving it and my sides a very soothing, relaxing, and gentle massage, and taking slightly longer than my back.

After this, she gently stroked my belly with her fingers, smiling warmly at me, which told me everything I needed to know. It was time to hop into the bathtub. Helping me to sit up on the towel bed, Georgina walked over to the big bathtub in one corner of the room, near the hot tub, and turned the taps, starting the tub filling up. She then pressed a couple of buttons on a waterproof keypad that was near the faucet, which turned on the water jets, filling the tub even faster. Next to the sink, Georgina had placed a bottle of bath soap, a bottle of shampoo, and a bottle of bubble bath; this was the one she grabbed and poured a generous amount into the spray, which created a massive mess of bubbles in the quickly rising water, making me giggle. Only four minutes later did she turn off the jets and taps, as the bathtub was filled to a decent level, the thick layer of bubbles on the top just beckoning to me to step in. I wasted no time walking over to the tub, where Georgina softly wiped the bottoms of my feet with the washcloth she had used prior, which also made me giggle before she let me step into the bathwater, letting the warm suds surround and relax me. She then moved the bath soap, shampoo, and a clean, folded-up washcloth over onto the side of the bathtub, before pulling off her shirt, pants, socks, and shoes, revealing that she had worn them over her swimsuit, before wiping her own feet, and finding a seat in the tub, next to me.

Reaching for, and unfolding, the washcloth, she dipped it into the warm, sudsy water, before lathering it up with the bath soap until it was absolutely caked. Turning to me, she slid herself forward, until her legs were underneath mine, draped one arm across my shoulders, and began to very soothingly, very softly, very gently, slowly, and very thoroughly, wash my belly, chest, and arms. Honestly, if Georgina hadn’t put her arm behind me, I probably would have fallen backward, and dozed off; she relaxes you _that_ much when she washes every inch of your body. She spent a good thirty-five minutes, just soothingly, slowly, softly, and thoroughly cleaning my upper front half, right down to my thighs, getting my neck, arms, armpits, sides, hands, belly, chest, and waist incredibly caked in soap, before soothingly washing around to the back of my neck, and starting a very soothing, very gentle, very soft, very slow, and very thorough scrub of my back half. Twenty minutes had passed, as she washed my upper back, added another layer of suds to the backs of my arms, and cleaned all around the bruise, before she bit her lower lip in worry, and slowly brought the soap-caked washcloth up to my injury.

Almost immediately, I grimaced and hissed when I felt the washcloth touch it, my mind immediately flashing back to the moment the Eraser kicked my back, almost creating an extra mental layer of pain. As she felt me tense up, Georgina quickly pulled it back, before deciding on another tactic, like what she had done when she wiped my entire body, earlier. Taking the still incredibly soapy edge of the washcloth, she began very slowly, very softly, very gently, and very carefully dabbing at the bruise, hoping to transfer some of the suds to the affected spot, but also fearing that that might cause pain, as well. Several more dabs later, she noticed I was relaxed again, both physically and mentally, having pulled away from the sordid recollection, and she then began to gently wash it directly. This had the effect of calming her as well, as she ended up covering the affected area in nearly as thick a layer of soap as the rest of my upper body.

Not long after, she helped me to my feet, so she could very soothingly, very slowly, very softly, very gently, and very thoroughly wash the rest of my waist, between my legs, my hips, butt, the legs themselves, and then my feet, being extra gentle as she soothingly washed the bottoms of them, as well as all around, over, and between my toes, knowing how ticklish I was, from the way I reacted to her both wiping them, and rubbing them, earlier. This took another half-hour, before Georgina finally rinsed out the soap-caked washcloth as thoroughly as she could, wrung it out, and placed it on the side of the tub, near the bottles of bath soap and shampoo. She then reached for the hand sprayer, something she hoped she wasn’t about to regret doing.

Spraying it into the bath water first, feeling the water change temperature with one hand, while adjusting the taps with the other, the sandy-blond former whitecoat began to gently spray my very soap-caked body, starting from my feet, and very slowly working her way up my legs, as the accumulated suds started their descent into the bath water below. Passing my butt, and going all around, as she slowly made her way up my lower back, fear started to set in within her, as she slowed her pace, and inched her way toward the lowest part of my bruise, testing the waters with a feeble stream of water, to see if she needed to wipe off the soap, or if she could get away with using water.

The gentle approach worked, as it didn’t leave me in pain. Keeping one hand on my shoulder as she sprayed, she began to calm herself once she noticed I hadn’t tensed up, like before. She let out a gentle sigh of relief and continued to rinse off the rest of the bruise, followed by my back, before wrapping around to my front, soaking it thoroughly, and getting my shoulders, arms, and neck.

It then came time for her to wash my hair. She helped me sit back in the water once more, before sitting behind me, gently helping me lean my head back, and spraying my hair with the hand sprayer, running her fingers through it until each and every follicle had been adequately soaked. The shampoo came next; I heard the snap of a bottle cap popping open before I felt the shampoo being poured directly into my hair. Once she had poured a generous amount into my hair, Georgina closed and replaced the bottle, before beginning an equally relaxing scalp massage as she lathered up my hair just as well as she had done with the rest of my body, moments ago. It was moments like this that made me realize that Georgina seemed to know the real definition of “thorough.” This took about ten minutes, before she had transformed my long, brown-and-pink hair into a giant loofah of suds, and then proceeded to rinse her hands off with the bath water. The hand sprayer soon came back into action, and with one hand over my eyes, to ensure no shampoo would get into them and sting, she gently rinsed the entire mass of suds into the bathwater. When I reopened my eyes, I couldn’t help but notice that not only was the bathwater that surrounded her and I still filled with suds, but it seemed as though there were even more suds now, than there were when she filled the tub, initially, and that made me giggle a bit.

Finally, after an extended, incredibly relaxing period of time, the bath had come to an end, and Georgina helped me to my feet, and began gently rinsing off any suds that were still on my body, before helping me out of the water, rinsing her own legs off, pulling the plug in the tub, and then stepping out, herself. Another twenty minute-long full-body rinse wipe with the second washcloth came next, something that also felt quite relaxing, soothing, gentle, and very thorough, before she helped me lay on the towel bed, unrolled another towel from the towel rack, and began to very softly, very slowly, very soothingly, very gently, and very thoroughly wipe my entire body with it. Now, _this_ really _was_ pampering, let me tell you. After something as crazy as a battle against whitecoats and Erasers, one where we actually stood a chance, and even triumphed over them, knowing Georgina will be able to very softly, soothingly, and gently wipe, rub, and wash away all of your worries is just… well, I don’t think I can put that into words, for the moment.

After thirty minutes of extra gentle drying, making sure she wouldn’t aggravate my bruise any further, Georgina very gently rubbed some medicated cream all over the spot, along with the scratches on my arms, and any other scratches and scrapes she found during the full-body rub, before placing band-aids on the scratches, and very gently wrapping bandages around my belly, enclosing the bruise. Then she helped me into clean clothes, got my socks and shoes put back onto my feet, and then she picked up the towel bed, wiped up any water that spilled out of the bathtub, and put away her first-aid kit, soap, and shampoo.

Three-and-a-quarter hours later, Georgina and I came out of the bathroom, myself feeling quite relaxed, refreshed, and much better than I had been, earlier. A few of the others had left to go back into their own suites, while a few others, including Ulrich and Yumi, had stayed behind, despite having their assigned room. Ulrich’s eyes caught mine, as I walked over to the bed I had unwittingly claimed as my own.

“I’m sorry, Cassidy,” Ulrich lamented, rubbing the back of his head as I laid down on my bed.

“Hm?” I asked, attentive to his words. “For what?”

“For thinking you weren’t able to fight,” he clarified, staring at my bed, rather than into my eyes. “It was really dumb of me… I was just, uh… worried you were gonna, well… get captured right away. And after what they did to you at The School, I uh… couldn’t let them do that to you. But you really proved me wrong. Whether you remember Pencak Silat or not, you were still able to hold your own, anyway.”

“It's okay, Samurai,” I smiled. “You were worried about my safety. I'm just surprised I hung on as much as I did.”

“I was worried, too,” Yumi added, sounding and looking slightly ashamed. “But after I saw what you did to Reilly…”

I scoffed, smiling as I sat up to face her. “That darned whitecoat had what was coming to him. But I must admit, I took the hint from when Aelita was possessed in the first timeline on Saint Valentine’s Day. Even though I prevented that attack, something about the first twenty seconds of Lyoko really helped.”

That brought the memory of that day to the forefront of Yumi’s mind, especially the point where Aelita, under XANA’s control, kicked her off her feet, and into a tree.

“That was really strange… XANA must’ve really given her super-strength that day.”

“No kidding, right?” I giggled.

Nearby, Jeremie slowly sat up on another bed, having finally come out of his lovestruck daze. “Whoa… what hit me…?”

“Nothing bad happened, Jeremie,” I smiled, relaxed. “I think I laid too much praise on you and it overloaded you. Guess I’m not the only one that needs to learn.”

After a few seconds, a thought suddenly struck Jeremie, causing his eyebrows to fall. “I’ll say! Are you out of your mind?! Asking Aelita’s father for her hand in marriage! What makes you so sure I would need it?! Not even _Odd_ would come up with a joke like that!!”

“It’s not a joke this time, Einstein.” I raised my hands, showing absolute calmness in my gestures and words, only stumbling once. “Plus it was so n-n-nice for you to do that.”

That made him start to calm down, as his shoulders relaxed, and his eyebrows slowly rose back up to their usual position, but something else caught his attention. Raising an eyebrow, and making a slight noise out of confusion, the blond genius then wondered why exactly I had trouble saying the middle part of my last sentence.

And I knew exactly why he looked at me suspiciously. “Uh… Mand-Mandy… Nob-noble is a little hard for me at the moment.” I shook my head.

Aelita calmly walked over to me, with a soothing, disarming smile on her face.

“Really, I wouldn’t worry about her, Cassidy,” she cooed, almost as if she knew what had happened. “Mandy, Reilly, and the other whitecoats and Erasers are long gone, by now.”

“She threatened you, Aelita. I—” Finding myself unable to finish my sentence, I brought my fists up to my temples, the stress mounting.

“Yes,” Aelita reached behind me, and softly rubbed my back, next to my wings, interestingly avoiding the spot between them, “but you showed a lot of strength, and you proved that you weren’t going to let her rule over you, or threaten me. There’s no reason to be ashamed of that. You did well.”

“Aelita’s right, Cassidy,” Yumi agreed, giving me a confident smile. “You’ve really gotten stronger, against XANA, the whitecoats, and the Erasers.”

I nodded, taking in a deep breath. “I guess it scared me to hear it, Aelita. She sounded like she was going to get you after I was done for.” With that, a grin grew on my face. “Biological sibling or just a friend, I was _not_ going to let her hurt you the way she did me! She was like the previous personality Sister harbored, but somewhat…different in a way. I just couldn’t let her go back in to try to find you or Hunter. I’m sure he’d get spooked in a heartbeat.”

“I agree,” Jeremie beamed. “I didn’t want him to get caught, either.”

Finding nothing else to say on the matter, I decided to change the subject. “However, I don’t know what made me pass out. I remember Total reassuring me about something, then all of a sudden, I woke up here.”

“I think the Eraser kicked you a bit too hard,” Ulrich commented, almost staring out the window of our suite. “I should’ve went over and pummeled him for you until you could get back up on your feet.”

“Well, Jeremie had been sedated.” I waved him off. “I got curious as to who it was, and it was definitely what I saw in my vision. Plus, Yumi helped. Nice footwork, there, my geisha friend. That was pretty clever.”

Yumi blinked, looking a bit surprised by my comment, before slowly recovering. “Uh… yeah, thanks! You looked like you could use a hand, and I wasn’t about to let him tell a whitecoat to sedate you.” She let out a slightly nervous giggle, as she rubbed the back of her head.

 _“Dou itashimashite,”_ I smiled, although a part of me was sure I pronounced a few syllables wrong. “And you were right. I was getting a bit tied up.”

No matter how I said it, she still knew what I meant, and nodded her head in understanding. “You’re getting it.”

“Where mere mortals have failed, the beautiful, brave, valiant Yumi Ishiyama jumps right in with a kick in the right direction for the Eraser assaulting Cat Girl the Magnificent,” Odd came in, raising a finger.

All Yumi could do was just blush, as she grinned. Aelita couldn’t help but giggle at that, which started Odd chuckling, as well.

“I think we did a good job,” I smiled.

“We drove away the Erasers and whitecoats,” Jeremie came in, a confident air around him, “and proved to them that we’ve become a force to be reckoned with. I’d say we did more than just a good job.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I agreed. “Even the two I really hate the most were banged up good.”

This made Odd laugh even harder. “Oh, did you see the look on Mandy’s face, when Reilly hit the tree?! I thought her eyebrows were gonna fly off her head and go into the sun!”

“Well, it was a better option than having him do his worst to me,” I shrugged. “He had a loose grip when he tried to use his arms as restraints around my chest.”

“He probably wanted to keep you unharmed,” Aelita suggested, as a smile blossomed on her face. “Either way, you really did a good job against him.”

A grin grew upon my features. “Thanks, Aelita.”

A few moments later, Jeremie raised his arms into the air, stretching for a few seconds, before lowering his arms and looking at his watch.

“Well… even though it’s still pretty early in France, it’s getting pretty late,” he commented, noticing the time. “At least we got some pampering earlier, but the spa in this hotel opens much earlier than the one in Las Cruces. I haven’t checked what services are available, but we could easily hit the spa tomorrow morning after we eat, and before we leave for North Platte.”

“Right,” Yumi stretched her own arms into the air, next. “Then I guess we’d better get going, so we can try to get an early start. Good night, everyone.”

“Good night, Yumi. Good night, Ulrich,” I smiled tiredly at the couple. “Remember, you two: The other loves you.”

Ulrich shot me a playful glare, while Yumi let out a slight giggle, both lovebirds’ cheeks gaining a very noticeable rosy tint, as the two made their way out of the suite.

Once they were gone, I decided to climb into my bed, followed by Sister not long after, who grinned at me. “Ready to get another massage, dear sister?”

“Yeah…” I nodded, feeling Aelita slide into my other side, herself having armfuls of my stuffed animals, as well as her own Mister Pück, to deposit onto the bed.

And with that, Sister began to softly, slowly and soothingly rub my left arm, side and the left portion of my back, next to my wing, to avoid rubbing the bandaged bruise in-between my wings, while Aelita gave my right side, arm, and section of my back similar treatment. It was a good thing I was in bed at that moment, as something like that could take away the rest of your energy before you knew it.

“Man, that battle was rough,” I yawned, feeling Sister’s gentle caress already going to work.

“You’re telling me!” Odd’s comment slowly devolved into a yawn, finding mine contagious. “Even fighting monsters on Lyoko were a snap compared to this.”

Before I could offer any sort of reply, Kiwi leaped off from Odd’s blanket-covered belly onto mine, before climbing my torso as though it was a ramp, and giving my left cheek a gentle lick.

“Good night, Cassidy!” he yipped happily, almost panting. “My master will make sure your dreams are sweet!”

“Good night, Kiwi,” I smiled, almost wanting to giggle at that. “Good night, _novio_.”

“Good night, Cassidy,” _mi novio_ muttered tiredly, just as his puppy leaped back into bed with him, gently wiggling as he tried to burrow under my wildcard’s arm.

As the three of us settled down, Jeremie walked over toward the bed next to ours, preparing to get it ready for him to sleep in.

“Once again, Cassidy,” he commented, as he reached the bed, and gently pulled the covers back, “you did really well, today. That’s a great way to get over your fears of Mandy and Reilly.”

“Well, it helped that the Eraser started in on me somewhere,” I mumbled. “Although I wish that he chose a better way than to use Odd.”

“He probably went for someone who was really close to you,” Jeremie suggested, as he climbed into his own bed, and pulled the covers up to his shoulders, but not before placing his glasses on a nightstand next to his side of the bed. “Next to Yumi, Sissi, or Aelita, Odd really was their best bet.”

“Yep. Good night, Einstein…” I yawned.

Seeing my eyes fight a losing battle to stay open, he let out a yawn as well, before reaching for the light switch. “Good night, Cassidy. And good night, Aelita, Sissi, Odd, and Kiwi…”

“Good night, Jeremie,” Aelita replied sweetly.

While he got a reply from Aelita, _mi novio y su perro_ had already dozed off before Jeremie had spoken, the battle from earlier, along with Georgina’s baths, having tired them out quite noticeably. However, the other girl in my bed was still awake and heard Einstein.

“Good night, Jeremie, sweetheart,” Sister said next.

With his formalities out of the way, Jeremie slowly closed his eyes, allowing his mind to be filled with memories of a beautiful pink-haired girl, as he slowly drifted off. He began to mutter in his sleep, speaking about her quite wonderfully, and telling the entire room, in one way or another, the things he wouldn’t be able to say without embarrassment, his breath hitching, or freezing up.

“Well, he’s happy,” I muttered sleepily, a smile gradually growing on my face.

Aelita found herself grinning, with a slight pink tint, nearly the same shade as her hair, gracing her cheeks. “Sometimes I wish he wouldn’t be so embarrassed to tell me how he feels.”

“I know, but it’s like with me and my own issues…” A yawn interrupted me mid-thought. “It’s…baby steps…”

Sister nodded, continuing her soothing rubs of my arms and back. “He’s just got to work at it.”

Of course, if Aelita replied, I couldn’t quite remember what she said, as Sister’s gentle rubs were slowly sending me into dreamland, as my eyelids gradually drooped, and I fell asleep. And just like Kiwi had said, I entered into beautiful dreams, with absolutely nothing scary, unlike the night before. I really didn’t have anything to worry about, to be honest; I had shown up both Mandy and Reilly with courage that was inside me the whole time, even if it took it a while to come out. They ran back to wherever their headquarters in Nevada were, as I’m sure they wouldn’t go all the way back to Death Valley, California, unless they absolutely had to. But tomorrow would be a wonderful day. Hopefully, we wouldn’t have to worry about them for a while, we could probably make it out of Colorado, and end up in North Platte, Nebraska, the place where I was born.

I really couldn’t wait.


	21. Look Out, North Platte! Here Comes Cassidy!

**Hunter Moebius and I don’t own Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride, or Kaitlyn Belpois. We do, however, own our own OC’s and the plot.**

Before we knew it, the next morning had arrived. Heck, I was the first to open my eyes, knowing what was to come. Finally, after all of that driving around over the past few days, I would finally be near home…

Well, one home, at least. I had basically lived in France for the past few years, going to school at Kadic Academy with the others, but before all of that, I had two homes in the United States: my real home, in Albion, Illinois, and my summer home, in North Platte, Nebraska. So essentially, I was going to be visiting my summer home, where I expected my grandparents to be; but either way, this was going to be a real treat.

Excitement filling my being, I wasted no time pulling back my portion of the covers, being sure not to disturb Sister, or Aelita. Of course, what I didn’t realize was that, during the night, Kiwi happened to sleep trot over to where Sister, Aelita, and I were sleeping as one impromptu family unit. So, when I flung my covers backward, the sheets ended up landing on him.

“The moose did it! I’m an innocent dog meant for this mortal realm! Don’t take Tutu away, Mr. Cow!” he yelped, vigorously pawing at the sheets until they fell off from him.

Instantly, one of my eyebrows shot toward the ceiling, slight amusement and confusion mixing into one. “Uh… Kiwi… what was in that dog food you ate last night?”

He shook his body to wake himself up, looking up at me. “Oh, Cassidy, it’s just you. For a moment I thought a bull detective was going to hurt Tutu. Such a weird and scary dream.”

Suddenly, before I could reply, my wildcard boyfriend suddenly shot upright like a laser caught him off guard, with his arm outstretched, like he was going to fire laser arrows in retaliation.

“Let go of my diggity-dog’s girlfriend, you crazy Krabe!” He yelled, pretending to “fire his laser arrows”, clearly forgetting he wasn’t on Lyoko, or even in France, for that matter. Naturally, this made my eyebrow break through the ceiling.

“Uh… Kiwi had a nightmare, _Novio_ ,” I giggled sheepishly.

“Sorry, Odd, Master,” Kiwi lamented.

“Huh?” he lowered his arm, looking confused, as his eyes drooped halfway. “So there’s no crazy XANA attack?”

“Not that I know of,” I reassured.

He shrugged his shoulders, managing a half-awake smirk. “Well, at least my diggity-dog and his cute girlfriend are alive and well.”

“Yep,” Kiwi woofed.

“Who is that SCREAMING?!” the three of us heard, next. Turning to my right, I found Sister had awakened, only she didn’t look very happy. Of course, she soon looked around the room, noticed I wasn’t freaking out, and that Kiwi and _mi novio_ were slightly _locos_ , and began to calm down. “Oh…”

“Odd got worried that Kiwi’s girlfriend was taken by a Krabe, but Kiwi was apparently watching cop shows all night,” I reported. “Sorry to wake you up, Sister.”

She raised her arms into the air, letting out a calming, soothing yawn, before turning to me as they came back down. “That’s okay. I’ve already gotten my beauty rest, anyway. Did you sleep well, dear sister?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

Not long afterward, we heard another grunt from our friendly neighborhood Einstein, who was also quite out of it. “Okay, who gave George the keys we retrieved from the toilet to the boat?”

“Jeremie, dear, you don’t even know a George,” Sister softly protested.

“Huh?!” He gained a surprised look, as he glanced at Sister. “What are you talking about, Sissi?!”

“Well, you have been waking up and spouting things about a George,” I noted, giggling, “to hilarious results, Einstein. The only one I know is a Georgina.”

Jeremie’s cheeks slowly began to gain a slight rosy tint. “I… I-I have?”

“Do you wanna hug and squeeze someone, calling them George, Jeremie?” Odd quipped, pointing at the only sleeping member in our suite. “Well, Princess is right over there, but you can’t call _her_ George.”

That only made his blush worse, bringing _mi novio_ close to chuckling. “But I… I don’t… what are you even talking about?!”

“But speaking of Aelita,” I came in, hoping to change the subject before our genius’s “condition” grew much worse, “she must be exhausted from our battle yesterday.”

“It took a lot out of all of us,” Sister agreed, rubbing her eyes. “I thought I was going to sleep straight through into the afternoon.”

“I might take a nap during the trip,” I muttered, as I didn’t entirely feel fully awake just yet, despite having slept at least seven hours. Apparently, it was going to take more than that, before the feeling of the previous day’s battle finally wore off.

“And you deserve it, Cat Girl,” Odd smirked. “You were incredible out there! Did you see the way you took down that Eraser? And then Reilly, and even Mandy?! It was like you weren’t even afraid of them!”

Now, it was _my_ turn to feel my cheeks heat up. “Uh… I—”

At that moment, any attempt to make anything that sounded even halfway close to a sentence was turned into squeaking, random babbling, and rehearsed vowels. It was like my brain and larynx were out of sync, or I was imitating Sister, that day Franz possessed her.

“Odd, honey,” Sister gently scolded. “You know how your girlfriend, my dear sister is, when it comes to people praising her!”

“It’s not my fault she doesn’t know how to be humble!” Odd retorted, half-jokingly, as he folded his arms. “I keep trying to teach her, but she just starts babbling every time!”

Hearing those two go back and forth, I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get my brain to cooperate with my tongue. “Guh—Gah—G-Gu-Guy-Guys?”

Things got much better, as Sister wrapped her arms around me, giving me a gentle snuggle, but before she could say anything reassuring, the four of us soon heard another noise.

In the bed between Sister and I, our lovely pink-haired friend finally rejoined the world of the living, raising her arms into the air as a gentle, soothing yawn escaped her lips.

“Good morning, everyone,” she greeted us warmly, a smile on her face as she rubbed her eyes. “I had such a wonderful dream. Did all of you sleep well?”

“Sister, Jeremie, and I had good dreams, but Kiwi somehow got involved in a cop or mafia drama—hard to tell—and poor Odd got a bit worried on Lyoko in his,” I reported, coming into normalcy.

“I swear to the sky, the moose did it!” Kiwi yipped.

“The moose?” Aelita raised an eyebrow as she looked at the winged dog.

“Okay, who let Kiwi watch _Law & Order_ last night?” Jeremie asked, his complexion back to its normal state.

“We didn’t watch anything on television at all, remember?” I asked. “We just talked around and then fell asleep.”

“That’s right, dear sister,” Sister agreed. “After that battle, yesterday, we were all quite worn out. I almost wanted to fall asleep, during my bath!”

“I still feel a little shaken from what happened to Jeremie. But given the fact that he gave himself up for Aelita, it helps me calm down a bit,” I admitted.

“I couldn’t just let them get her, without a fight,” Einstein reassured me, managing to keep himself calm as he recalled his actions. “It seemed like the best course of action, and I wasn’t about to let Hunter think that his first outing as a Lyoko Warrior was nothing but hypodermic needles and sedatives. I wanted to try and outsmart them, but they had me cornered. What else could I have done?”

“I’m glad they left us alone afterward,” Aelita added, smiling warmly at her knight in glasses and a brownish red turtleneck. “But you were really brave, Jeremie.”

“It was for a good cause,” Odd jumped in, raising a finger.

I nodded in reply to their three comments. “I know that, but to see you on the pavement, down for the count, it still scares me a little. However, you’re still a genius, Jeremie.”

“Well, um… I… only did my best, after all.” The blond genius rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly as a blush lightly tinted his cheeks.

Before he knew it, Sister had climbed out of her bed, walked over, and sat down next to Jeremie.

“I think that deserves a hero’s snuggle, Jeremie, dear!” she exclaimed, before embracing the bespectacled blond in a warm, soothing and relaxing snuggle, not only taking away the blush, but calming him completely, as he brought his arms around to return the hug.

She held the hug for a good ten seconds, if not longer, before the door to our suite opened. All of our friends then came in, carrying their luggage in suitcases. Apparently, they had already packed up all of their things, while Sister, Odd, Aelita, Jeremie, Kiwi, and I were chatting about dreams, and acts of bravery. Yet, as I watched the others come in, I began to get a sinking feeling as Georgina, Jeb, Max, and Ari walked in, which only intensified as the last person entered: Hunter. Right away, as I looked at him, I could immediately tell why: first, he was really bad at hiding these sorts of things, as he hadn’t had the experiences with XANA that the others and I had; and second, nearly everyone else in the suite could see images from the nightmare he had playing through our minds, as well as his.

“Hunter? A-Are you o-okay?” I asked, feeling his emotions start to make my internal ones tremble.

Afraid that my empathy was going to throw me into an overload, I quickly tried to imagine myself in Lyoko HQ. I was sitting on my bed, knitting, while Odd and Ulrich were playing _Ultimate Blaster_ as Kiwi slept beside _mi novio_. Sister and Anthea sat behind me, taking turns gently brushing my hair, while Aelita and Yumi sat on my geisha friend’s bed, playing a game of Go. Jeremie resided over his computer, looking for any XANA activity with Franz flanking him to watch over the results. It seemed to help for the most part, as I began to feel my nerves evaporate as I kept up the memory. I then began to wonder if imagining either myself, or Hunter, undergoing some sort of spa treatment—one that didn’t involve him getting washed—would convince him to transfer my thought to his mind, and calm him down.

So much for praying.

He took a deep breath, trying to stop his hands from occasionally twitching, but it was still quite noticeable in his voice. “I-I-I-I’m… not too bad. I… just didn’t get very much… sleep, is all…”

“He had a bit of a hard night,” Georgina explained, putting her arms around him. “I tried to really help him relax, before he went to sleep. I softly, soothingly and thoroughly wiped every inch of his body twice, and gave him a nice, long, slow massage, and a full-body rub in-between. I even let him sleep in his favorite pajamas. But I guess the battle last night had more of an effect on him than we thought.”

Hunter closed his eyes, before taking another deep breath, hoping to pull himself together, but he was still quite shaken up, as the nightmare was still fresh on his mind.

So, that’s when Sister stepped up to the plate.

“You came into the right suite, Hunter, darling!” she explained warmly, walking over to the black-haired programmer with a warm, inviting smile on her face, and her arms outstretched. “I know just how to get rid of terrible nightmares like yours!”

As Georgina slid her hands up onto Hunter’s shoulders, my dear sister wrapped her arms around the black-haired programmer, who slowly returned the gesture. Right away, we all watched as his arms stopped shaking, and could see his mind clearing itself within our own. At that moment, Hunter tightened his grip around Sister, giving her an even warmer, gratitude-filled snuggle in reply, relaxing in her arms as a grin spread across his features. His nightmare had completely vanished, and with it, the terrible feelings it brought him.

Taking myself out of my imagination, I took in a deep breath of my own, finding my emotions getting a foothold in the rock wall. “Thanks, Sister, sweetie. I really didn’t want Jeb to sedate me after what had happened last night.”

Sister began to softly rub Hunter’s back, as she turned her head toward me. “Oh, don’t worry about that, dear sister! I was more afraid he would sedate poor Hunter, here! But a nice, warm snuggle is all you need to get rid of a really bad nightmare.”

Jeremie clapped his hands together, a smile on his face. “Nice one, Sissi. Great to see your powers have proved useful, once again.”

“So, would you all like to go down to the spa before we leave?” Ari asked. “That way, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Total, and I can do some patrols before the trip. Jeb will pack everything for you.”

Everyone voiced their approval. After all, with what happened yesterday, we were looking forward to the spa, even though we probably wouldn’t stay very long, compared to last time.

“Why don’t you all head back to your suites and get ready,” Georgina suggested, as Sister finally freed Hunter from her warm embrace. “I’ll just take Cassidy into the bathroom, so I can have a look at her bruise, and get her ready.”

“Yeah, I forgot about that,” I giggled sheepishly.

Everyone except Sister, Aelita, Odd, Jeremie, Kiwi, Georgina, and I wasted no time heading out of our suite, and back into their own, while the former whitecoat gently led me into the bathroom. After closing the door, she went to find where the bathrobes were stored, as I undressed. Once all of my clothing had come off, she gently removed the bandages that had protected the bruise the Eraser had given me, the day before, and was surprised to find it had been reduced to a small scab.

“Well, I’ll be…” I heard her whisper to herself, before raising her voice to indoor levels. “It seems your bruise has healed itself quite well. In fact, it’s healed up faster than I thought it would.”

“Then again, we do have stronger healing powers, than before,” I noted. “If it weren’t for the return in time, Ulrich would have been in a cast for six to eight weeks as his arm healed up, and who knows if he would have needed surgery.” 

“You seem to know how the body works, sweetheart,” Georgina grinned.

“I just get bored and research anything that we wouldn’t normally learn in the semester,” I shrugged indifferently. “Or just read any topic to educate myself. That’s how I knew about the child abuse cases in _A Child Called “It”_ and _Abused but Chosen_. But sometimes my material had raised some brows. Like when I reread the _Kidnapped_ trilogy, Aelita wouldn’t stop staring at me weirdly for two weeks. I just love Gordon Korman’s work, that’s all.”

“They seem like quite the interesting books,” Georgina critiqued in reply, while still keeping a warm smile. “But there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having distinctive tastes. No one should fault you, no matter what types of books you like. After all, not everyone likes mystery books, but some do.”

“You’re right, Georgina. I guess I’m a bit eclectic in my choices,” I smiled.

“That’s right.”

And with that, Georgina gently helped me into a very soft, very gentle terrycloth robe, and I made my way out of the bathroom, out of my suite, and into the hallway, where my friends had gathered, all wearing similar outfits to mine. In the time that I had taken to get ready, Max, Ari, and Max’s flock had taken off on another patrol, even though sometimes I wondered why they didn’t stay for their own spa experience, as they worked even harder than we did, and were much more deserving. Oh well, I guess you can’t make a gorilla drink after you lead it to water…

Once we were all together, Georgina led the way down to the spa area, which did give us slight Las Cruces vibes, as we picked out the treatments we wanted. I could already hear Sister’s mind going crazy with all of the different treatments they had, hoping we could do more, but knowing that we were only going for massages, to save time. Somehow, I couldn’t help but think of her old personality, which would have taken her time, and gotten nearly every treatment, if she could; if that had happened, there was a really good chance we never would have left New Mexico. It was one of the many reasons, that I was thankful for Sister’s change in personality.

The massages were chosen, and money was paid, before several masseuses walked us back to our own rooms. Each was somewhat basic, yet relaxing and inviting, with dim lighting, soothing, calming music playing from speakers placed in the corners of the walls, near the ceiling, and a bed in the center with fresh, white sheets upon it, and a square pillow with a hole in the center. Next to this bed was a chair, and a small wooden table, upon which sat different kinds of lotions and creams. This was where mine differed from the ones the others received; while they went for standard, full-body massages that went on for an hour, mine was similar, went for the same length of time, but also included medicated creams and lotions, along with essential oil-based ones, mainly intended for the shrunken scab on my back.

The masseuse walked over to her chair, and I made quick work of my bathrobe while she had her back turned, before laying upon the bed on my belly, feeling the soft, gentle sheets soothingly caress my bare skin. Once she lathered up her hands with a medicated cream and began soothingly working it all over my upper and lower back, my eyes slowly began to close, as my entire body fell into a state of relaxation. It was little tiny stops like these, along with the ability to see my parents and relatives again, that took care of some of the bad things this trip had brought me. After all, not everyone could brag to their friends, “hey, I got taken to California, experimented on, given wings and new psychic powers, as did my friends, but we got some of the most invigorating and relaxing spa treatments from all over the United States, which kinda made up for the terrible parts,” could they?

On second thought, I might be too afraid to even mention that…

Completely forgetting about everything, including the time, as we got all of our worries and cares soothingly, softly, and thoroughly rubbed out of nearly every inch of our bodies, the hour had soon gone by, and with a quick “thanks” to each of our masseuses, we re-robed, and made our way back up to our suites. It took us each anywhere from five to ten minutes to slide back out of our bathrobes, once back in our respective suites, and into the clothes we were going to wear for the day, and once our shoes were back on, Jeb came back in, and helped each of us pack our belongings into the van. It only took us a half-hour to get through that and get our card keys returned to the lobby.

Thankfully, last night’s battle came without any damage to the hotel itself. To Jeremie, Aelita, Hunter, Nudge, and Fang’s credit, they kept away from any expensive vase or breakable mirror. The maintenance crew had cleaned up the blood on the parking lot, so not to freak out other patrons. When we went out and got into the van, it looked almost as though we had never battled any whitecoats and Erasers at all, which surprised me. I mean, I know how blood can stain things, but… wow. They must’ve had a lot of Coca Cola or peroxide.

With a quick glance in that direction, and all of our belongings loaded into the van’s seemingly immaculate back end, we boarded the vehicle, buckled up, and Georgina started the engine. Pulling out of the hotel’s parking lot, soon we were back on the main road, and heading toward another highway on-ramp, only this one was farther away from the last one, just in case the whitecoats and Erasers had one extra trick up their sleeves, despite their efforts to “regroup.”

Thankfully, the ride was completely calm as we got onto the highway. However, things did get interesting after that, and not because of any of those cretins or crazy things I just mentioned.

We had been driving along on the highway, some of us looking out the window, watching Max and the others provide aerial protection, while Odd played a losing game of I Spy against Jeremie (I tried to warn him against it, but he insisted at his own “peril”), becoming almost an exercise in futility. It was at this time that I started to get excited about where we were soon going to be headed.

“I can’t wait to be in North Platte. It’s been ages since I’ve been there,” I smiled, feeling totally exhilarated. “I’m so excited I could sing!”

And in fact, I did kinda feel like singing. Only… that’s not what happened.

When I opened my mouth to sing _The Only Difference between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage_ (seriously, Panic!? You couldn’t resist?), instead of Brendan Urie’s unique vocals exiting my mouth, something a bit farther… eastern came out, instead. Something that didn’t even sound like an exchanging of words. In fact, I sounded more like I belonged in a _Ricola_ commercial.

“Wow, Cat Girl,” Odd quirked, as I started yodeling. “I didn’t know you were part Swiss.”

 _I-I’m not…_ my thoughts wavered, before I opened my mouth.

“Breaking news,” I said, although the voice that came out was not my own; it was Olivia Descartes, the France 24 news reporter, from before. “We have an update on the kidnapped teens and their dog. Reports have recently surfaced that the thirteen are, in fact, alive and well. They had escaped from a facility in Death Valley, California in the United States, and are making their way toward a sea port in Baltimore, Maryland, where they hope to return to France.”

“Hey,” Jeremie began, quite surprised by both my strange style of singing, and the voice that he had heard, previously. “That’s Olivia.”

“The parents and relatives of the thirteen abductees reported to France 24 that they had received phone calls from each, only six days after they had been reported missing,” Olivia’s voice continued to waft from my mouth, as I tried closing it, making my own noises, and even mouthing other things entirely; nothing seemed to stop Ms. Descartes from talking. “However, we just received word from our North American affiliate, NBC News, that they had to fight their way out of a precarious situation in Denver.”

Jeb raised his eyebrows, both surprised and impressed by the report. “Well I’ll be… Word travels fast…”

As it continued, I made some motions to Odd, +This is so weird… I want it to stop…but I’m stuck!+

But if having an older woman’s voice uncontrollably coming from my mouth was weird, imagine how weird I felt when Hiroki’s voice suddenly started talking. It was as though I had suddenly grown younger and somehow was born the opposite gender than what I was currently. “My sister’s such a cool fighter. I bet she probably showed those white jacketed guys a few moves from _Ultimate Blaster_. And she’s got her boyfriend Ulrich with her, so she can’t possibly lose! I’ll bet they probably kissed after they won, too!”

“Hiroki!” Yumi’s face slowly started to turn red, both out of anger and embarrassment, as she listened to her little brother; thankfully, he was cut off, just as he started to make kissing noises.

 _Shirley… could you make this stop any time soon?! This is so embarrassing…_ I tried to ask in my mind, keeping my shields up.

But that was far from the end. Next, however, a more familiar voice left my lips, this one from a well-known, and somewhat well-respected, science teacher.

“Of course, they had to go and capture three of my brightest students!” It was Mrs. Hertz, and at first, she didn’t seem so happy. “But they should realize they’re wasting their time. With their respective mental capacities, I’m sure Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy can out-plot anything those scoundrels have up their sleeves!”

My defenses lowered. _Uh… we tried to…_

 _She has no idea what any of us are going through,_ I heard Jeremie’s thoughts echo in my mind, as he glanced over at me with a calm look on his face. _She can only imagine, and she probably won’t have an accurate picture._

The voice coming from my mouth switched back to Ms. Descartes’, but only briefly. “Upon hearing of their safety and good fortune, Jean-Pierre Delmas had this to say.”

“It warms my heart to hear that the children, especially my daughter, and daughter by proxy, are alive and well,” Mr. Delmas’ voice wafted from the gap between my lips, almost as if I was an incredibly good ventriloquist, matching wits with the likes of Jeff Dunham or the Gasman outside. “When I received that cell phone call from my darling Elisabeth, followed by one from Cassidy, I was overjoyed to hear of their safety.”

“Daddy! It’s ‘Sissi!’ I hate being called ‘Elisabeth!’” Sister protested.

However, Dad wasn’t finished. “Word does happen to travel fast, however, and the entire school knows of their escapades. We all wish them the safest of trips, and hope to see their triumphant return to Paris, within a month.”

“I know if I was up against those dunderheads,” Jim’s voice was the next one to burst from my mouth, almost surprising me, “I’d give them exactly what for! It’d be just like that time I fought with the Secret Services, against the Blue Flag Army! Ah… they didn’t know what was coming to them, either… but I’d rather not talk about it.”

Everybody else burst out laughing, when they heard Jim’s “trademark line.” Even Hunter, who had never heard him say that firsthand, found himself giggling up a storm, along with the others. It was good to know that Jim was still okay, and still his funny, ridiculous self. I only wished I could laugh right along with them, but the price of playing long-distance radio tends to strip you of your ability to do anything else.

Then came a voice I almost wasn’t expecting, but it put a smile on Odd’s face, as well as the others.

“We’ll all be waiting for you guys, when you get back here.” It was Rosa. “I’ve got a big, loving spoonful of spaghetti, mashed potatoes, French Fries, meatballs, and gravy just for you, Odd. And Cassidy, too. I’ve got lots of good food for all thirteen of you. Even you, Mr. Hunter Moebius! When you start coming here, I’m gonna treat you to the best cuisine Kadic Academy has to offer!”

“Yeah!” Odd raised his fist into the air, excitedly. “I can’t wait to get back to Kadic, now! All the meatballs and gravy I can eat! Mmmmmm!”

“Save me a plate,” Kiwi chipped in.

“The various families have chimed in about their excitement to learn the safety and wellbeing of their children,” Olivia’s voice returned, “and say that they are eager to keep tabs on their progress, as they make their way toward a seaport in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Eastern coast of the United States. From there, France 24 has learned that they will be boarding a cruise liner, which will take them the rest of the way back to the French mainland. However, all of this will take the better portion of a month, but we have heard that the twelve, and their dog, are well cared for as they make their journey. We’ll keep you up-to-date with more on this story as it develops.”

Finally, whatever in me that was making me imitate Kadic’s faculty lost the signal, as I leaned forward slightly, before pulling myself back up. I couldn’t begin to tell you how crazy that was.

I started to tremble with exhaustion, hugging myself as though I was cold. Heat rose to my cheeks. “Ugh… that was way wackier than wacky neighbors doing _cosas locas_ —under a blue moon and with rocket powered roller skates attached to their elbows for no reason…”

“You can say that again, Cat Girl!” Odd agreed, as he started to laugh. “Not even elbow ollies would make it any more interesting than that!”

Of course, my dear sister wasn’t in a laughing mood, and her arms soon found their way around my body, bringing me the heat I thought I needed, to stop my crazy shivering.

“Don’t worry, dear sister,” she cooed, snuggling me warmly. “Isn’t it better to know our daddy is so excited for us? We’ll get to see him again really soon!”

“I know that, Sister. And I’m glad for that, but the fact of a broadcast coming out of my mouth like that… I don’t think I can even compare it to getting attacked by the Schyphozoa—and I had been attacked by that monster about five times, Yumi and William only once, and Aelita even more so!” I protested.

“Cassidy, having a news broadcast come out of your mouth is nowhere near getting picked up by the Schyphozoa,” Aelita gently reminded me. “At least you get to keep your memories, and you don’t have a chance of being possessed by XANA. Besides, I’m sure we can always change the channel.”

“True, Aelita, but at the same time, I don’t know what to compare it to. I don’t even think Meat Loaf can make this situation into a song.”

“Oh, I could see that,” Sam chimed in, grinning. “He’d need something for the third Bat Out of Hell album, wouldn’t he?”

“I think their track list is full,” Ulrich quipped, chuckling.

“I’m sure he could always go for one more!” Odd added, laughing, hoping to raise my spirits. “He could even borrow from Billy Joel!”

He then began to sing his own version of Piano Man. “ _And the psychic’s a yodeling radio, as she tries to vie for control…”_

Of course, that only served to make my cheeks heat up more, as I gathered my knees to my chest. I knew they were trying to make me feel better, but you’d think they’d know me better than that; that was more humiliating than uplifting. Even Odd putting a picture and a video submission to Milly and Tamiya slowly got better with time.

Aelita looked over at me, with concern on her face. “You shouldn’t let it bother you. You know they’re just trying to make you feel better.”

“I guess it could be a little funny, once it has been a few hours,” I shrugged, slowly smiling. “And I thought Larry could try yodeling to make pets feel better. Or Jessie could try to rally her animal friends this way.”

That made _mi novio_ start laughing even harder, his high-pitched giggles turning into cackles. “You still got it, Cat Girl!”

“When have I ever lost it?” I quipped.

He laughed a bit more, before a deep breath brought him back down to Earth. “Well… there were these two times you made fun of Kiwi, but I won’t hold them against you.”

“Right. Not my best moments, I have to admit, but one of them was just to wake you up, Odd,” I retorted, giggling.

“She’s right,” Kiwi yipped, hopping onto my lap. “You were laughing pretty hard, Odd, Master.”

Now it was his turn to be offended, only he was pretending.

“Hey! Whose side are you on, my little diggity-dog?” _Mi novio_ quipped with a voice of mock anger, folding his arms.

“I’m an impartial party, Odd, Master,” he quipped, winking with one eye, as his tongue hung out of his mouth in a goofy fashion.

Odd’s eyes widened at these words, pulling him out of his pretend anger altogether. “Wow! You sure weren’t kidding, Cassidy… Even _I_ didn’t teach him that!”

“Makes you wonder if all the time he spent around Einstein rubbed off on him, huh?” Ulrich commented, grinning somewhat ambitiously at his original roommate.

“Well, he still hinted that something had happened at one point,” I blinked, remembering what happened when Yumi, Odd, and I took Kiwi back to the dorms.

“You’re right.” With surprise in her voice, Yumi suddenly remembered the time I read Odd’s diggity-dog’s thoughts, that day Kiwi spent a day at her house. “You told me that Kiwi somehow remembered spending the day at my house once before, and how I didn’t believe you at first…”

She then lowered her voice a bit, knowing how I felt about what she was going to mention. “Until later…”

“Yeah, that was my own brain,” Kiwi explained the situation further. “At first, when I went through my motions as a regular canine, I thought I was doing what I would normally. It wasn’t until Cassidy here started reading my mind that I felt that there was something strange around. Even when she and I fused, I started thinking about how it was possible, but then I began remembering a bright flash of light, bringing me back into Odd Master’s bag as I ate a couple treats, and his hair was down.

“Then came the Big Quake!” he continued. “Everything started breaking around me. And then, suddenly, I was floating…”

“That was the monster,” Jeremie explained, assuming the dog didn’t know.

“I’m still gonna call it the Big Quake, Einstein,” Kiwi raised a paw, as though raising a finger. “It was so unusual. Well, when I watched that movie… it started to click and make sense. I was repeating my actions as I had before, but with a few differences. Cassidy would hop in as soon as she sensed danger. When Sissi helped me so I could join her on that bed at the human vet’s, I felt more secure. She’s a Mother Wolf to me.”

I grinned modestly, my wings ruffling, feeling my cheeks heat up again, bringing a slight reddish tint with them. “Uh… sure… we can go with that!”

Aelita couldn’t help but giggle, both at how Kiwi praised me, and the way he described a doctor’s office or hospital room. “‘Mother Wolf?’ I guess Odd will have to start calling you ‘wolf girl’ from now on!”

“That’ll be a tough habit to break,” I laughed. “He might mix nicknames, even.”

While Sister, Aelita, and I were focusing on what Kiwi was talking about, his master had gotten lost back at the beginning of his diggity-dog’s description, pleasantly surprised by the way he was talking.

“Wooow!” he exclaimed, grinning excitedly at the winged canine. “Either Einstein left his dictionary out where you could take a few bites, or you’ve been reading somebody’s mind an awful lot, because I never taught you any of that! Faaaan-tastic!”

Then, he looked up at me, keeping his expression the same. “And look at you, Cat Girl! You’re finally learning how to stay modest and humble! I knew one day my training would pay off!”

“I guess it is,” I muttered, feeling as though the effect was only temporary.

Of course, a moment after I did that, I tried to stifle a yawn, afraid of giving the others the wrong idea, especially Odd. After all that talk of me suddenly conforming to his version of “humble”, I didn’t want him to think it was all a lie.

But Yumi’s keen senses were onto me, like a lioness with her prey in her sights. “Are you okay, Cassidy?”

“Still really beat after we had that big battle. Makes me wish I built up my stamina in Jim’s commando camp,” I sighed, my mind slowing to a fatigued crawl.

“When you were sick like that?!” Ulrich could remember that day easily, and still thought Jim was out of his mind for demanding I come, anyway.

“I kinda meant after the boar attack, Samurai,” I whispered, another yawn escaping my mouth.

“I don’t understand what it is about Jim’s commando camps that you two like, Jeremie and Cassidy,” Hunter commented, looking a bit surprised. “I saw the first two he had you two go through, and… besides the fact that he was out of his mind for making you do it, with the way you were that day, if I wanted to be yelled at, and treated like dirt, no matter how hard I try, I’d join the Army.”

“I don’t know what came over him that day, either, Hunter,” Aelita came in.

“It was foolish pride,” Kiwi yipped. “He was excited Jeremie was going through agility training that he overlooked Cassidy’s ill state. If it were me, I’d have called the human vet to help her.”

“Well, I also think he was out of his damn mind,” Kaitlyn exhumed, raising a furious fist. “He really should have excused her, Kiwi.”

“No kidding!” Ulrich exclaimed.

“Anyone could see she looked terrible!” Sam picked up, as if she was continuing Ulrich’s sentence, yet with less tact than he had, as she stretched her arms out toward me. “If my old gym teacher told me to work, even though I felt like I was gonna pass out, I’d talk to the principal!”

“Well… Mr. Delmas ended up finding out anyway,” Jeremie jumped in, thinking about what he had overheard from Milly and Tamiya not long after, “thanks to Yolanda. He wasn’t too thrilled about how Jim just worked her, so he let him off with a warning. I don’t know _how_ he thought she was in tip-top shape, when she was riding around on one of Yolanda’s cots after she went out cold for a while, anyway.”

Kaitlyn, Hunter, Aelita, Ulrich, and Sam collectively breathed a sigh of relief at this, albeit at different times, rather than like one big chorus. Even Kiwi had his own unique way of showing how relieved he was, by panting a few times and yipping as he did before The School did what it did.

“Thanks, Einstein… I don’t even want to know what we would do without you…” I yawned again. 

“It’s okay,” Jeremie replied almost automatically, before he started to gain a bit of a blush. It was then that he noticed I wasn’t exactly running on all four cylinders. “Hey Cassidy, don’t you think that maybe you should take a nap? It’s probably going to be a nice, quiet ride to North Platte, so you shouldn’t need to stay on your guard the entire time. We can manage without you for a few hours.”

I lowered my head onto Odd’s lap. “Yeah… You’re right.”

A warm smile slowly snuck its way onto Odd’s face as he began to softly and slowly rub my arms and sides. Aelita then grabbed the Twilight Sparkle blanket Hunter had gotten me for my belated birthday, and gently wrapped it around my body, her face finding Odd’s grin contagious in the process. “There…”

“Nice one, Princess,” _mi novio_ praised.

“I’m so… glad to have friends… like you all…” I smiled, starting to trail off.

“Good night, Cat Girl,” Odd cooed softly to me, which turned out to be the last thing I remember hearing, before sleep gently took hold of me.

\---

It was a couple hours later, during which some of the others tried as many car games as they could think of, all without beating Jeremie, when I slowly opened my eyes and sat up, rubbing them. “Mm… Where are we?”

Around me, I could see Sister, Aelita, and Hunter had taken my lead and dozed off at some point after I did, their snoozing bodies decorating the adjacent seats as they slept peacefully, before my eyes focused on Jeremie.

He had a grin on his face as his eyes met mine. “We have some good news: As soon as we pass Julesburg, we’re officially about to enter Nebraska!”

That made his smile doubly contagious, to the point where I thought the excitement would swallow me up. But I had to stay quiet; even though I wanted to show exactly what I thought of the direction we were taking, anything in the realm of an excited scream or shout was liable to wake Aelita, Sister, or Hunter, and possibly the dead.

So I whispered, putting as much happiness into my voice as I could, without getting too high-pitched. “Really?”

“Better believe it, Cat Girl!” Odd grinned, running his hand up and down my back, between my wings.

The blond genius turned his laptop’s screen in my direction, so I could see where the map program it displayed was pointing to. “We’re heading through Julesburg, right now. In about 16 miles, we will have officially crossed the Nebraska state line, inside Big Springs.”

It took my eyes a few seconds to find the arrow representing the van on the screen, but when they did, and when they saw the path it was taking, they widened in amazement. “Oh, wow…”

And not long after, Aelita slowly sat up, resting her back up against the back of her chair, yawning a bit and rubbing her eyes.

Immediately, Jeremie looked over at her, as a warm smile took hold of the corners of his lips. “Did you sleep well, Princess?”

She nodded, a sweet smile gracing her lips. “I did. Better than I did when I woke up this morning, Jeremie.”

“You probably needed more sleep,” I noted, shrugging off the blanket and trying to fold it up.

However, as I brought my arms up to fold the blanket lengthwise, I didn’t notice the blanket had gotten in the way and was soon reminded of this.

“Cassidy, don’t block Georgina’s rear view mirror, please,” Ari turned around and warned me lightly. “She needs to see behind her.”

“Sorry, Ari.” Slightly embarrassed, I giggled sheepishly as I brought my arms down.

“It’s okay,” Georgina said, keeping her eyes on the road.

As I allowed myself to calm down and find another way to fold up my Twilight Sparkle blanket, Aelita turned around and looked out the window. “So, where are we now?”

“Close to the Colorado/Nebraska state line,” I whispered excitedly, sucking in a breath as my squeals threatened to escape my throat.

Odd couldn’t help but grin at this, knowing how I couldn’t wait to see my grandparents again, and quiet chuckles soon poured from his mouth. Yet, while this seemed all fine and well at first, I could see him thinking about it over and over again in his mind, which only  made his laughter get louder and louder, until he had forgotten that two of our friends were sleeping nearby.

Well, at least they _were_.

Hunter slowly sat up, running his fingers through his disheveled black hair as he balanced himself against the back of his chair. Not long after, Sister opened her eyes, looking a bit upset at first, but soon calming down, as she let out a calming, soothing yawn that Hunter almost found contagious.

“Odd…” The black-haired programmer groaned, moving his hands downward to rub his electric green eyes. “What happened this time?”

“Oh, the wonderful Cat Girl is slowly returning to her old self again!” _mi novio_ sighed happily.

“That’s good at least,” he replied groggily, slowly trying to smile in reply. “So… how far have we gotten… now?”

“We’re almost to Nebraska, Hunter!” I squealed, trying not to scream out loud, lest I startle Georgina into driving into a ditch.

While Hunter’s eyes widened in surprise, both at that revelation and my excitement, Sister shot Odd an angry look, before turning toward me as it magically transformed into one of exhilaration—or at least as much as a half-asleep former snob could muster—upon realizing what I had said.

“H-how far away are we?!” Her groggy voice could only contain her own enthusiasm somewhat.

“We are about 14-15 miles to the state line,” Jeremie answered for me, soon catching part of Sister’s grin, himself.

“And the best part is, soon we’ll all be in North Platte,” Aelita and Sam chorused, both girls beaming with glee.

That did it. Just hearing how excited some of the others were, along with my own excitement, soon got to be too much for my body to handle. Before I could do anything, an overjoyed scream left my mouth, my arms shooting toward the roof of the van, as if I had won the lottery, and was able to give everyone $5 million, each.

Naturally, thanks to the terrible acoustics in the van, anyone who had free hands grabbed their ears as fast as they could, just in case another bomb of happiness within me decided to explode. However, they couldn’t help but grin and giggle at how happy I was.

“Okay, who gave Cassidy caffeine this morning?” Ulrich deadpanned, grinning as though Odd had made a comment, saying Kiwi’s eating habits were far superior to Nicholas’s, already chuckling on the side.

While most of the van’s occupants were quite surprised by my sudden scream, only one seemed to not be affected by it at all: Georgina. She kept her eyes firmly on the road, and the steering wheel in both of her hands, calmly steering the van down the highway without stopping to worry about what caused my outburst. It was probably because she knew nothing crazy had happened in the back; she didn’t hear any of the doors open, so nobody could have gotten out, and the locks had been triple-checked since Jeremie was flung out, four states earlier, so she was incredibly certain I couldn’t have screamed because any of the windows broke—she didn’t hear that, either—or some whitecoats and Erasers had dropped in from a helicopter—there were no other bangs on the roof since we had passed into Denver, Colorado—so everything checked out in her mind, and she figured it had to be something positive, instead.

“Easy does it, kiddo,” Jeb teased, chuckling as he turned in his seat. “You should save your excitement and ecstasy for your grandparents, don’t you think?”

“True,” I smiled, giggling sheepishly. “I guess I’m just happy to see them both, plus my parents, since it has been ages.”

Yumi couldn’t help but grin, as she started to get an idea. Her eyes slowly darted over toward Hippity, my green stuffed bunny Sam gave me as a belated birthday present, as her thoughts turned to her telekinesis ability. She had been caught subconsciously moving things in midair with it, without even realizing that’s what she was doing, so it seemed as though she knew she could do it… but she hadn’t yet tried consciously using it. And since my stuffed bunny was a good enough size, and my heart wouldn’t break if she accidentally dropped it, it seemed like a good test.

A look of determination overtaking her face, she closed her eyes and placed her fingers to her temples, just like she would when she was on Lyoko. She focused her mind on Hippity, making a couple of us slightly curious, despite knowing the expression. It only took a couple of seconds, but soon my stuffed bunny began to rise from its spot on top of my suitcase, and slowly hovered over toward me. My eyes widened even farther as I saw Hippity look as though it was flying straight toward me, wobbling every so often, which led me to slowly stretch out my arms toward it, while keeping my eyes transfixed. A few seconds later, it slowly hovered into my hands, as Yumi slowly opened her eyes, looking almost as though she had gotten a headache from her little test. I, on the other hand, slowly turned my head toward her, my expression still looking as though a ghost had appeared in front of me.

As you might expect, I wasn’t the only one who was shocked by what Yumi had just done.

“W-wait… d-did you just do that, Yumi?!” Hunter gasped, looking pale as a sheet.

I was quite freaked out by what Yumi had done as well, but at least Hunter could talk, albeit with a few stutters in places; I couldn’t even do that. I opened my mouth to ask Yumi what she just did, and the only thing that came out was a small squeak.

And Jeremie only fared slightly better, a look of complete shock on his face, and fear in his voice. “Oh, wow…”

Yet, while Hunter, Einstein, and I were stewing around in our stunned amazement, Ulrich somehow found a reason to smile. “Great work, Yumi, _kanojo_.”

“I didn’t know if it would even work,” Yumi lamented, mostly surprised that Hunter, Jeremie, and I took it the way we did, while feeling somewhat happy for herself, like Ulrich was.

“Oh, it so did, Yumi, darling,” Sister grinned.

A few shakes later, attempts at regaining control of every single one of my senses, I finally stuttered out something that actually sounded like a comment. “Wait—whoa—huh?! That—Yumi…wow… Uh…”

She looked over at me, as the corners of her lips gently pulled themselves upward a tiny bit. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought having Hippity would make you feel better.”

I took a deep breath, finding some sense of normality. “Well, it more awestruck me than scared the pants off me. Holy cow… And I thought you saving Odd in the Mountain Sector when he almost took his first dip into the Digital Sea or the time you crushed William with a Desert Sector Replika pillar was amazing enough.”

“But that was on Lyoko!” Odd commented, starting to look a bit excited as he stared at Yumi. “Are you sure we haven’t been teleported?”

“Not likely, Odd. We’re still in the United States,” I deadpanned, hugging Hippity close.

“It has to be something about the way we got our bird wings,” Yumi theorized, looking at Odd. “Think about it; we can all read each other’s thoughts, something only Cassidy could do before the monster hit. Sissi can heal emotional wounds. Those whitecoats had to have done something more to us, than just give all of us bird DNA, Cassidy some of Aelita’s DNA, and Kiwi some of Odd’s DNA.”

“I agree with you there, Yumi,” I nodded. “But as to what before our out-of-body experience, even I am stumped. I mean, Max and her flock have had their powers since when they were born—and new abilities slowly sprouted over time—but with me, I make no sense at all. Save for a few instances of Deja vu-like dreams in America, I was not even born psychic. These powers just randomly came to me out of nowhere, the day I stood at Kadic’s gates. One minute, I was human and nervous about my new school; the next, I ended up with these powers.”

While I spoke, Jeremie began fighting with his tongue, which was twisted into knots, as something I said didn’t really sit well with him. It took him up until a few seconds after I finished my sentence, that he was finally able to untangle his tongue, and rebuke me.

“What are you talking about?!” he shouted at me, flabbergasted. “How can you just sit there and tell us that you don’t make any sense whatsoever?! Are you even listening to yourself?!”

“I don’t know if you have noticed, Jeremie, but sometimes you all would look at me as though I grew a second head when I spoke in a random way. Even my almost-correct Southern accent would make Jim stare at me as though I said something in spy code and think ‘Is there some sort of reply I should say to her?’” I shot back, keeping a cool tone.

“Okay, then!” Jeremie lowered his voice a few decibels, as his eyes locked with my own. “Name _one_ time any of us questioned your speech patterns, your sanity, or your abilities.”

“Ulrich gave me a weird look when I said that I was ‘a-coming’ to see Kiwi for the first time,” I blinked. “As for my sanity, because of my powers, I tried to give you guys advice, but it ended up coming out completely different. I could feel Samurai’s eyes upon me when I tried to tell him to stab his clone through the stomach. Abilities, I could name a few, but when I couldn’t stop time for the second time, when Odd and I were kidnapped in place of him and Yumi, and I yelled everything I could, but nothing. Later on, Odd even commented on it, wondering why I couldn’t get it right.”

Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi and Aelita all stared at me, surprised I had kept mental notes of every single time a situation like that came up. They knew I had wrote down every single psychic vision I had ever had, but they didn’t realize it extended to other things, as well.

It took Jeremie nearly half of a minute to find the words for any sort of reply or rebuttal.

“Okay…” He hesitated slightly as he spoke, partly wanting to tell me how right I was, but also afraid of what damage that could cause. “Maybe you’re right about that… but I don’t think you should sell yourself so short.”

“But you agreed to what I said yourself, Einstein. I’m an enigma. Maybe that’s why Julian Xao glared at me the first day I came through the gates,” I sighed, defeated. “He could see that I was weird, and he didn’t want anything to do with me. Maybe that’s why Valerie moved out of my dorm after the fall break. She was my roommate, and she could somehow sense I wasn’t like the other girls at Kadic.”

“But sister, darling,” Sister spoke sweetly and reassuringly, in an attempt to lift my spirits, “they just judged you! They didn’t know anything! They were too stupid to try and get to know you! If Valerie, or even that stupid idiot Julian tried to get to know you first, they wouldn’t think of you the way you think of you. Maybe Valerie had another reason for moving out? It might not have even had anything to do with you, or your powers! And how can people get to know you, just by looking at you? Even _I_ was too stupid to see the real you, and I was stupid to everybody, even Nicholas and Hervé! But if any of us had gotten to know you, they probably wouldn’t have thought badly of you, and if they did, then forget them!”

She then gestured in Hunter’s direction. “And do you think _Hunter_ would have come all the way to Paris from here, if he didn’t want to be with any of us? You know what _he_ thinks of your powers, and he thinks of all of us as his heroes! That includes _you_ , sister dear!”

I looked up into her eyes. “Really?”

A grin slowly grew on Sister’s face, as she returned my gaze, nodding.

“She’s right,” Aelita jumped in, bearing a warm smile as well. “And just think of all of the wonderful things you’ve done for us. How many times have your psychic powers helped us? You’ve saved Yumi on multiple occasions, you’ve helped me navigate through Kadic, you’ve helped Odd and Ulrich bring up their grades, you’ve also helped Jeremie write programs to help us fight against XANA, and you even sang with me at our Subdigitals concert. I’m sure all the times you’ve helped us far outweigh the times you think you messed up. You really shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. And besides, I would never move out of our dorm room.”

She added a slight giggle at the end, hoping it would encourage the same in me.

And while it didn’t get me to giggle, I did smirk amusedly at it. “Well, Lyoko HQ would not be Lyoko HQ without you, Aelita. And you’re right. I guess I still have some dark clouds that are too thick for me to beat away.”

“All you need is some sunlight!” Odd piped up, grinning at me like someone paid him a hefty compliment. “And what better sunlight than Odd the Magnificent, _¿tu querido_ _novio?_ If I’m not bright enough to blast those mean ol’ dark clouds away, then I’m not trying hard enough! Just ask Ulrich!”

To this, his original roommate raised an eyebrow, caught off-guard. “Hey!”

So at this point, I’m sure it’s probably obvious how my darling wildcard seems to know exactly what buttons to press, to make me laugh. And with that, along with Ulrich being utterly surprised by Odd’s last comment, I immediately fell back into my seat, cackling like a crazy woman as I clutched my belly with both hands. I even started kicking my feet, as well.

“Well, Odd, you’ve done it again,” Ulrich commented, his surprised expression turning into a grin as he looked at his good buddy.

“Definitely,” Jeb agreed, chuckling a bit, himself.

“I think your parents would love to attend your wedding, Odd,” Samurai continued, chuckling, “You both have the same sense of humor.”

Hunter chuckled a bit, before running his fingers through his hair for a few seconds. “I don’t think I could see Cassidy wearing a promise ring, or even a wedding ring, though. She rarely wears jewelry as it is.”

“You’re right, Hunter dear,” Sister smiled. “She doesn’t even have her ears pierced.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I shook my head, causing my hair to fall over my ears as my cheeks started to heat up. “Uh…”

Yumi was the first to notice what could have been a possible overload, as she winced, slightly. “Why don’t we talk about something else, instead? Cassidy isn’t taking that too well.”

Hoping to find another topic to quickly jump into, Jeremie looked at his laptop. His face brightened up as he got a good look at the map program’s output. “Hey! We’re so close to the state line, now, Cassidy!”

My eyes widened in surprise as he announced that, swerving my focus toward the genius of our large group. “Really?!”

He looked up from his laptop with a wide grin on his face. “Yes! In fact, we’re just about to pass through into Nebraska! Five!”

“Four!” Kiwi piped up.

“Three!” Yumi shouted.

“Two!” Jeb came in next.

“One!” Ari jumped in.

“Zero!” Georgina announced, as the van passed a gigantic “Welcome to Nebraska, the Cornhusker State” sign. “We’re now in Big Springs, Nebraska, Cassidy!”

Just from hearing those words, the excitement within me grew to yet another fever pitch, feeling like a bomb whose fuse had just about burned down to the explosive part, and a few seconds later, detonated. My eyes widened, my cheeks stretched out, and my heart began to race, as my voice reached a higher pitch, but not one that would risk hurting the others’ eardrums, or making Kiwi go mad from hearing a pitch only he can hear. “This is so great!!”

“I’ll bet,” Jeremie beamed. “You’ve been waiting a very long time to come back here one day.”

“And I really hope this makes up for what happened a while ago, Cass,” William chimed in, “even if the circumstances weren’t ideal.”

“It does, so much, William,” I whispered, so unbelievably happy.

Aelita extended her arms toward me, smiling warmly. “Welcome to one of your homes, Cassidy.”

I nearly leaped into my former first roommate’s arms, almost knocking her backward, if her seatbelt hadn’t kept her steady. “Oh, thank you, Aelita.”

She couldn’t help but giggle as she felt the tight hug I gave her. She knew how excited I was, but I don’t think she really predicted the full extent of it.

Odd was even laughing, too, as he extended his arms in my direction, but more as a gesture, rather than an invitation for his own hug. “Now, there’s the Cat Girl we all know and love, but I love her more!”

“And let’s intend on keeping it that way, Odd, honey!” Sister grinned. “All warm smiles, from here on in! We’ll all love that!”

Yumi nodded in agreement, finding she had also caught the smiling bug. “Mm-hmm!”

“And look at how happy we made her,” Jeb beamed. “I wouldn’t have expected any reaction less.”

Nearby, Jeremie had watched my reaction to Aelita’s hug invitation, and was quite surprised when my skeleton almost flew faster than my skin, but he was still quite happy for me, regardless of how excited I was. Even Ulrich was caught a bit off-guard by my actions, but it didn’t make him any less ecstatic. The two boys merely grinned, showing some level of excitement, yet it wasn’t as close as mine; Jeremie didn’t even think his lips would stretch that far.

“Now _that’s_ how you make a thrill session,” Sam commented with an excited grin and giggle, as she pointed at Aelita and me.

Over in his seat, Odd tried to fight back the slight blush that was overtaking his cheeks, at the mention of the words “thrill session,” especially because of the memories they invoked. But this time, he had his own way of countering it.

“Yeah, and I like this kind of thrill session better!” he commented, grinning first at Sam, and then at Aelita and me.

“I hear you,” Hunter agreed, looking as happy as the ones around him. “And after the way she’s been feeling and acting, so do I.”

“You can say that again, Hunter,” Odd smiled. “I’m happy Cassidy’s enjoying herself right now!”

As if I was oblivious to Odd, Hunter, and Sam talking about me, I kept my arms firmly around Aelita, hugging her warmly as the two of us giggled happily. It was several seconds after this that I broke our embrace and decided to focus on her elf, picking up Mister Pück and giving him a kiss out of excitement. This raised a few eyebrows in the back, mainly from William, Ulrich, Kaitlyn, and Patrick, but they just dismissed it not long after, chalking it up to my excitement for being back in one of my home states, and who I was going to see, by the time the day was over.

Of course, among the excitement for seeing North Platte again, there was also a bit of worry, well-hidden and well-disguised beneath all my cheers, giddy laughter and high-pitched screams. Yes, I would be seeing my grandparents again after a couple years… but then again, I’m not exactly the same girl they once knew. It was more than just what they probably saw from the monster; every single one of us had wings now, I had a strand of pink hair right in the front, that was only easy to miss if you actually tried to, and Kiwi could talk. Talking dogs were something you’d only see in movies and cartoons and read in books; they wouldn’t expect to actually see one standing by their feet, looking up and asking them if it was supper time, and that did worry me to an extent. Despite the fact that nearly everyone we had met seemed to turn a blind eye to these feathered things sticking out of my and everyone’s backs, two of the people that mattered most to me probably wouldn’t… at least, not at first. They were loving—I mean, they were my grandparents, for crying out loud—but what would their oldest granddaughter suddenly growing a lovely pair of wings make them think?

Maybe I was worrying too much, like Hunter would every now and then, and having quite a tendency to see every worst-case scenario possible. But I wouldn’t really know for sure, until I knocked on their front door, and one, or both of them opened it. Hopefully they didn’t find me in a puddle on the front walk from all of the fear.

Heck… would they even recognize me like this?

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cassidy's Brother](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10524810) by [LyokoFan (JanneKek)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanneKek/pseuds/LyokoFan), [TeenLyokoFan7777](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeenLyokoFan7777/pseuds/TeenLyokoFan7777)
  * [Cassidy's first time flying](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10549632) by [LyokoFan (JanneKek)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanneKek/pseuds/LyokoFan), [TeenLyokoFan7777](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeenLyokoFan7777/pseuds/TeenLyokoFan7777)




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